Carlin wins the 4 Hours of Sepang

In track conditions improving after the violent showers having largely delayed the start of the event, Carlin Racing wins the 4 Hours of Sepang, 3rd round of the Asian Le Mans Series 2019-2020.

In the night surrounding the flagship circuit of Malaysia, the race for victory quickly took shape between the Ligier JS P217 n°36 by Aidan Read – Nick Foster – Roberto Merhi and the Dallara P217 n°45 – Carlin by Jack Manchester – Harry Tincknell – Ben Barnicoat.

After taking the advantage thanks to a stop under Full Course Yellow, a little over 1h30 from the finish, Aidan Read saw Harry Tincknell come back little by little then Jack Manchester in the last hour, before resisting perfectly in view of arrival.

We thought victory was assured, but in the last five minutes the race direction ordered the No. 36 to stop to repair its non-functional rear lights.

An order not respected by Eurasia Motorsport, which crossed the checkered flag with a 25″ lead over the Dallara – Carlin. But the race direction logically imposed a 10″ stop&go, transformed into a 36″ race time penalty for the #36 Ligier, offering victory to the Manchester – Barnicoat – Tincknell trio ahead of the Eurasia crew.

This is the first victory for the British team this year in the Asian series.

The fight for the podium will have pitted several competitors against each other. The #217 Ligier JS P1 – Eurasia Motorsport and the #07 Oreca 96 – K2 Uchino Racing led the proceedings for a time, but the #1 dropped its flag at the start of the race after a hub problem, when the #96 01 moved back down the hierarchy, finally battling against the No. 26 Aurus 217 – G-Drive Racing and the No. 34 Ligier JS PXNUMX – Inter Europol Compétition.

It was ultimately G-Drive Racing, winner of the first two races of the year, which secured the podium with Roman Rusinov – James French – Leonard Hoogenboom, ahead of the only Oreca 07 in the field, operated by K2 Uchino Racing.

The Ligier JS P2 n°52 – Rick Ware Racing by Cody Ware – Gustas Grinbergas pockets the LM P2 Am category, despite a passage on the grass and a penalty for unauthorized overtaking under safety car regime.

In LM P3, Graff Racing imposes itself with the Norma M30 n°9 by David Droux – Eric Trouillet – Sébastian Page, with a clear lead of more than a minute over the No. 30 Norma M3 – Nielsen Racing of Garett Grist – Rob Hodes – Charles Crews. The Ligier JS P3 n°13 – Inter Europol Compétition of Nigel Moore and Martin Hippe completes the podium.

The Ferrari 488 GT3 logically dominated the race after having put their stamp on the first sessions, but victory ultimately went to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo n°88 – JLOC by Takashi Kogure – Yuya Motojima – Yusaku Shibata.

The latter took advantage of the penalty inflicted at the very end of the race on the No. 488 Ferrari 3 GT27 – HubAuto Corsa of Davide Rigon – Marcos Gomes – Liam Talbot, penalized with a stop&go for excessive speed under Full Course Yellow.

The #488 Ferrari 3 GT51 – Spirit of Race completed the podium in the category.

Discover the full report of the 4 Hours of Sepang, in issue 2255 of AUTOhebdo, available from Wednesday evening in digital version and from February 21 on newsstands.