AF Corse grabbed a second win of the weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard, completing a clean sweep of victories in the opening rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series. The No. 90 Ferrari 499P followed up its commanding win on Saturday with another triumph for drivers Nicklas Nielsen, Yifei Ye and Luis Perez Companc on Sunday afternoon, crossing the line with a margin of over a lap to its Hypercar rival from Cetilar Racing. Cetilar’s No. 47 Ferrari fell victim to a chaotic opening lap as FIA Bronze-rated driver Roberto Lacorte was one of several drivers to spin heading into the first corner, bringing out the first of two back-to-back caution periods. The stranded Ferrari was then collected by the No. 55 AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson, which retired on the spot. Lacorte was able to limp his damaged Hypercar back to the pits and fell one lap behind the No. 90 car after some rapid repairs from the Cetilar team. The No. 47 crew made several attempts to close the deficit to the leading Ferrari, including putting Ferrari factory ace Antonio Fuoco in the car in the early part of the race to chip away at Companc’s advantage. This did mean that Lacorte had to jump back into the car at the end of the race to finish his minimum driving time, which cost the team further time. Despite being able to unlap itself at one stage, the Cetilar entry was unable to close the unassailable gap to the No. 90 machine. Proton Competition’s pole-sitting No. 11 car claimed the LMP2 win after a lively fight with a handful of fellow Orecas. The German team ran a relatively covert opening stint; Georgios Kolovos managed to avoid the drama of the race start and jostle for the lead in the aftermath. Kolovos avoided a penalty for contact with Torsten Kratz in the No. 43 Inter Europol entry, before handing over to LMP2 debutant Victor Martins. The Frenchman then set the pace in the middle stint of the race, making a series of aggressive overtakes to take the lead on the road. Proton held its advantage as Martins handed over to fellow Alpine Hypercar driver Charles Milesi, who took the car to the flag with a gap of 5.3 seconds to CLX Motorsport. The No. 37 CLX Oreca mounted a charge up the order from 16th on the grid to finish behind the Proton crew. Third place in LMP2 went to United Autosports. The team decided to keep Bronze driver Giorgio Roda behind the wheel a little while longer than the rest of the field so that the No. 22 car could cycle into the lead. This put the Anglo-American squad on an alternate pit stop strategy to the leaders. It dipped in and out of the top five for much of the race, eventually finishing third with Ian Aguilera at the wheel. Despite having contact early on with a spinning GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG, reigning champions CrowdStrike by APR recovered to fourth place despite several penalties Algarve Pro Racing’s No. 20 Oreca completed the top five. Penalties and Pit Stops Determine GT3 Podium In GT3, Garage 59’s No. 58 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo snatched a surprise win following confusion over an unserved time penalty. The McLaren trio of Tom Fleming, Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall led the race following the second safety car restart having decided to pit one fewer time than most of the field. The team remained in the podium places until it was hit with a ten-second time penalty for a virtual safety car infringement. It was then slapped with another penalty from the lead for failing to carry out the initial sanction correctly. After a conversation with the race director, the Garage 59 team managed to avoid this punishment, giving them a clear run to the end of the four-hour enduro. AF Corse’s No. 50 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo finished 4.257 seconds behind in second place. Pit strategy was key to determining the GT3 running order at the checkered flag because each car had to carry out three timed 105-second pit stops throughout the course of the race. Many teams elected to take some of these extended stops under the pair of lengthy cautions in the opening hour. Garage 59 followed most of the pack in taking two of its timed pit stops at this point in the race. AF Corse, on the other hand, took all three of its stops in this window meaning it had to spend less time in the pits under green flag running for the rest of the race. The GT3 pole-sitter also elected to start the race with Silver-rated driver Rafa Duran at the wheel. It therefore had improved pace against its Bronze-rated competitors when the race restarted heading into the second hour. AF Corse then put Bronze driver Peter Dempsey in the car for the middle stint. The Irishman held his own on an alternate pit stop strategy to fight amongst the leaders. When the race came to a close, the No. 50 Ferrari had cycled back into the podium places. The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo finished third following a penalty for Winward Racing’s No. 87 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The 28-strong class saw constant battles including from Saturday’s winner, the No. 62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, which fought from the back of the field to the podium places until a penalty dropped them down to fifth. Asian Le Mans Series action will resume after the new year with the third and fourth round scheduled for Jan. 15-17 at Circuito de Jerez in Spain. RESULTS: Race 2
