Jakobsen Paces First Practice at Sepang

Malthe Jakobsen put CrowdStrike Racing by APR on top of the time charts for the opening Free Practice session of the new Asian Le Mans Series season at Sepang.

Peugeot Hypercar protégé Jakobsen posted a best time of 1:54.101 at the wheel of the No. 4 Oreca 07 Gibson that he shares with George Kurtz and Colin Braun to top Friday afternoon’s first session by less than a tenth of a second.

However, that was more than a half a second down on the best time set during Thursday’s two test sessions, a 1:53.543 that came courtesy of DKR Engineering’s Tom Dillmann.

Jakobsen’s best effort shaded Paul-Loup Chatin’s quickest time aboard the Proton Competition Oreca by 0.064 seconds.

Third-quickest, albeit some seven tenths off the pace, was the 99 Racing Oreca of Louis Deletraz with a best time of 1:54.719s.

Completing the top five in FP1 were the TF Sport and Nielsen Racing Orecas, in which Charlie Eastwood and Ferdinand Habsburg set the respective fastest times.

The session was red-flagged with around ten minutes to go before resuming five minutes later, although the order at the head of the timesheets did not change.

In the LMP3 class, Fabien Lavergne set the pace on a 2:00.930 at the wheel of the No. 2 CD Sport Ligier JS P320 Nissan, beating Viper Niza Racing’s Josh Burdon by a little over three tenths of a second.

A bumper 23-car GT class field was headed by Ferrari factory racer Davide Rigon, who recorded a 2:04.476 driving the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

The second Free Practice session at Sepang is scheduled for 4 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1