Carlin snatches victory at the 4 Hours of Shanghai

The first round of Asian Le Mans Series 2019-2020 on the Shanghai track will have provided suspense until the last lap of the race.

If G-Drive Racing seemed able to win with the Aurus 01 of James French – Leonard Hoogenboom – Roman Rusinov, the latter was unable to contain the charge ofHarry Tincknell (Dallara P217 – Carlin), came to overtake the Russian in the long right turn leading to the endless straight of the Chinese circuit.

Less than half a second separates the winning Dallara P217 from the second-placed Aurus 01, Tincknell, associated with Ben Barnicoat and Jack Manchester in the car operated by Trevor Carlin's team offering a first success to the Italian chassis in Asian Le Mans Series and a first victory for Carlin in LM P2.

The podium is completed by the Ligier JS P217 – Eurasia Motorsport of pole sitter Roberto Merhi, assisted in China by Aidan Read and Nick Foster. Three different chassis therefore on the podium, the Aurus 01 being an offshoot of the Oreca 07.

In LM P3, Martin Hippe and Nigel Moore began the defense of their title perfectly with the Ligier JS P3 – Inter Europol with great success ahead of the Norma M30 – Nielsen Racing of Tony Wells and Colin Noble and the Norma m30 – Graff Racing of Eric Trouillet – Sébastien Page – David Droux.

D'Station Racing wins in GT, with theAston Martin Vantage GT3 entrusted to Ross Gunn – Tomonobu Fujii – Satoshi Hoshino.

Discover the full report of the opening of the Asian Le Mans Series in issue 2244 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.