CrowdStrike By APR Wins Second Sepang Race

CrowdStrike by APR sealed victory in the second and final race of the opening Asian Le Mans Series weekend at Sepang.

Having finished sixth in Saturday’s opener, George Kurtz, Colin Braun and Malthe Jakobsen guided their Algarve Pro Racing-run No. 4 Oreca 07 Gibson to the top spot in Sunday’s four-hour race punctuated by three safety car periods.

After taking over from Kurtz early in the second hour during the first safety car intervention, triggered by a collision between the No. 21 AF Corse and No. 66 Attempto Racing GT entries, Braun battled his way up the order from fifth.

The American driver made his way up from fifth to second, and then grabbed the lead at the expense of the 99 Racing Oreca at the next round of stops as the APR crew turned him around 11 seconds faster.

Braun maintained a narrow lead over the No. 99 car of ex-Formula 1 racer Nikita Mazepin until a second safety car was called late in the third hour as a result of the High Class Racing LMP3 car coming to a halt.

Just prior to the intervention, Braun managed to get into the pits to hand over the No. 4 car to Jakobsen, but Mazepin was unable to do so.

Mazepin was then forced to make an emergency pitstop under caution, with the Saturday race-winning 99 Racing team’s woes compounded by the car being held at the end of the pitlane.

Another car that had pitted just before the safety car, the No. 22 Proton Competition Oreca in which Julien Andlauer replaced Rene Binder, emerged as Jakobsen’s nearest challenger when action resumed with just over an hour to go.

There was a further twist when the Viper Niza Racing LMP3 crashed exiting the final corner, causing a lengthy intervention, but both the No. 4 and No. 22 made their final stops before the pitlane was closed.

When the race resumed with 25 minutes on the clock, Jakobsen was able to ease away and take the chequered flag by 8.927 seconds.

Andlauer on the other hand came under increasing pressure from the 99 Racing entry of Louis Deletraz, who passed on the final lap to grab second in the car he shared with Mazepin and Ahmad Al Harthy.

Proton trio Andlauer, Binder and Giorgio Roda had to be content with third ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca, which also lost out in the second safety car period.

The No. 55 Proton Oreca looked on course for a podium until the final safety car, as Harry Tincknell was unable to bring in the car for its final fuel stop before the pits closed.

Tincknell finally brought home the No. 55 sixth behind the DKR Engineering Oreca in which Tom Dillmann starred before being held at the end of the pits along with the 99 Racing car.

CD Sport, Pxre Racing Take Class Wins

Victory in LMP3 went to the No. 2 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan of Fabien Lavergne, Michael Jensen and Nick Adcock.

Their path to victory was eased considerably when the Cool Racing car that was running second, and was poised to challenge for the final restart, was handed a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release.

Bretton Racing’s No. 26 Ligier was promoted to second as a result, with the Cool machine the third and final finisher in the class.

Pure Rxcing won out in an entertaining GT battle courtesy of Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler in the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Bachler brought home the Pure car by 0.947 seconds ahead of the No. 42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in which Christopher Haase took the finish.

Bronze-rated Alban Varutti once again starred at the wheel of the Sainteloc car in the early stages, as he led the early stages until being reeled in and passed by the No. 82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Kei Cozzolino.

Sainteloc looked to be in a strong position to repeat its Saturday win when the AF Ferrari was then removed from contention shortly after the first safety car period, as Charles-Henri Samani was involved in an incident with the No. 66 Attempto Racing Audi.

But a drive-through penalty for a safety car procedure infringement swung the pendulum away from Sainteloc and handed the Pxre squad a lead it would hold to the end.

Completing the podium was the No. 27 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 of Rob Bell, Ollie Millroy and Mark Radcliffe.

Results: 4 Hours of Sepang