RD Limited Takes Thrilling Debut Win at Sepang

RD Limited took victory on its debut in LMP2 competition in Saturday’s opening round of the new Asian Le Mans Series season at Sepang as Tristan Vautier fended off AF Corse driver Matthieu Vaxiviere in a thrilling finish.

The No. 30 Oreca 07 Gibson that Vautier shares with James Allen and Fred Poordad came through to clinch the win for Romain Dumas’ newly-established operation by just 0.055 seconds from the No. 83 AF Corse Oreca at the end of four hours of racing.

It followed a final lap during which the lead changed hands twice, as Vaxiviere dived up the inside of Vautier to grab the lead at the Turn 14 right-hander leading on to the back straight, only to then run wide at the final corner and allow Vautier back ahead.

Vautier had seen a lead of 17 seconds after the final round of pit stops whittled away by Vaxiviere, having taking over the car in the lead from James Allen after a strong middle stint by the Australian put the RD Limited car at the head of the pack.

The No. 30 had dropped to the tail of the LMP2 field after an early spin for Poordad, but a succession of safety car periods amid numerous incidents in the first half of the race allowed the American Bronze-rated driver to catch up the lost ground.

After the fourth and final safety car restart with just over two hours to go, Allen fought his way up from fifth to the lead, passing the then-race leading No. 83 AF Corse car of Alessio Rovera not long before handing over to Vautier.

Behind Vaxiviere, Rovera and Francois Perrodo, the final place on the podium was taken by another team making its LMP2 debut, Pure Rxcing, with Louis Deletraz, Harry King and class debutant Alex Malykhin sharing the TF Sport-run No. 91 car.

That was after Deletraz jumped the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing car of Malthe Jakobsen at the final round of pit stops.

Peugeot Hypercar driver Jakobsen came home for fourth in the car he shared with LMP2 newcomers Michael Jensen and Valerio Rinicella, while the top five was completed by the Nielsen Racing Oreca of Nicky Catsburg, Matt Bell and Naveen Rao.

The pole-winning No. 22 Proton Competition Oreca of Tom Dillmann, Vlad Lomko and Giorgio Roda ended up a disappointing ninth, only ahead of the sister No. 11 car.

Ultimate Wins in LMP3, CarGuy Victorious in GT

A closely-fought battle for LMP3 honors went the way of the No. 35 Ultimate Ligier JS P320 of Matteo Quintarelli, Bence Valint and Stephane Lemeret.

Quintarelli had to soak up the pressure provided by the High Class Racing Ligier of Anders Fjordbach in the closing stages, finally taking the win by 2.5 seconds as Fjordbach brought home the car he shares with Seth Lucas and Dennis Anderson second.

More than a minute behind the leading pair, the final spot on the class podium went to the Graff Racing Ligier of James Winslow, Alexander Bukhantsov and Danial Frost.

Inter Europol Competition’s two Ligiers both failed to make it to the finish after coming to blows at the very first sequence of corners shortly after the start, with both cars then getting involved in further incidents with GT cars that ended their hopes.

CarGuy Racing took the spoils in GT as the No. 57 Ferrari 296 GT3 shared by Daniel Serra, Esteban Masson and Yudai Uchida led an all-Ferrari podium ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse car and the No. 74 Kessel Racing machine.

Serra inherited the lead when the No. 51 car of Cedric Sbirrazzouli had to make a splash for fuel inside the final 20 minutes, losing time by running wide on his way into the pits.

Sbirrazzouli brought the car home he shares with Riccardo Agostini and Custodio Toledo 17.6 seconds down on Serra at the finish, while a late stop for the No. 2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo promoted the No. 74 crew to the final podium spot.

That was after Dennis Marschall made a sensational double move on both the No. 92 Manthey Porsche of Richard Lietz and the EBM Aston Martin of Brendon Leitch to grab the position, before holding off Lietz for the remainder of the race.

Marschall, who shared the No. 74 car with Ben Tuck and Dustin Blattner, and Lietz were split by just three tenths at the finish, with Davide Rigon’s No. 28 AF Corse Ferrari and Jules Gounon’s No. 61 Winward Mercedes-AMG similarly close behind.

The 4 Hours of Sepang weekend concludes on Sunday with a second race beginning at 2 p.m local time (1 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: 4 Hours of Sepang