Yoluc Gives TF Sport Pole for Sepang Opener

Salih Yoluc delivered TF Sport pole position for the 4 Hours of Sepang, the opening round of the new Asian Le Mans Series season.

Turkish racer Yoluc was the only driver to break the 1:54 barrier in the 15-minute session for LMP2 and LMP3 cars on Saturday morning, as he set a 1:53.653 in the No. 90 Oreca 07 Gibson he shares with Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood

That allowed him to top the session by 0.411 seconds ahead of the No. 30 Duqueine Team and No. 22 Proton Competition Orecas of John Falb and Giorgio Roda respectively, who set identical times of 1:54.064.

Falb’s lap came first, meaning he and Duqueine teammates Oliver Rasmussen and Carl Wattane Bennett will start from the front row, with the Proton machine shared by Roda, Julien Andlauer and Rene Binder lining up third.

Next up was the 99 Racing Oreca of Ahmad Al Harthy, only another seven thousandths back, the DKR Engineering Oreca of Alexander Mattschull and the second Proton car, the No. 55, of PJ Hyett.

Yoluc’s second-best lap of the session, a 1:53.874, also gives TF Sport pole for Sunday’s second race.

Duqueine man Falb was next in the second-best laps order on a 1:54.233, followed by DKR’s Mattschull on a 1:54.331.

LMP3 pole went to Audunn Gudmundsson in the No. 20 High Class Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan with a best time of 2:00.430, 0.624 seconds ahead of the No. 17 Cool Racing Ligier driven by Alexander Bukhanstov.

Gudmundsson’s second-best lap of 2:00.756 gives High Class a clean sweep of poles.

In the GT class, Alban Varutti annexed pole in the No. 42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, outpacing Anthony Liu in the No. 37 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to the tune of 0.345 seconds.

Steve Jans put the No. 9 GetSpeed Mercedes third ahead of the sister No. 7 machine, entered under the AlManar Racing by GetSpeed banner, of Martin Konrad.

However, on second-best times, it was Liu that was fastest on a 2:04.538s, giving Craft-Bamboo pole for Sunday’s race ahead of the GetSpeed car of Konrad and the Sainteloc machine of Varutti.

The 15-minute GT session was red-flagged twice for separate incidents involving the No. 82 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and the No. 75 Team Motopark Mercedes, both of which will start at the rear of the field.

The 4 Hours of Sepang is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT).

Results: Qualifying