Le Castellet 14 November 2026
The debut of the Ferrari 499Ps in the Asian Le Mans Series ended with a one-two finish for the two Maranello Hypercars in wet conditions at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. Victory went to AF Corse's number 90 car, driven by Luis Pérez Companc and official drivers Yifei Ye and Nicklas Nielsen, ahead of Cetilar Racing's number 47 car, driven by Roberto Lacorte, Nicola Lacorte and fellow official driver Antonio Fuoco.
Qualifying. Two qualifying sessions were held on Friday, one for each of the two races on the programme, with Bronze-rated drivers taking to the track as required by the regulations. The Ferrari 499Ps shared the pole positions, with Roberto Lacorte at the wheel of the number 47 car setting the fastest time for Race-1 in 1'51"979, while Luis Pérez Companc in the number 90 car was fastest for Race-2 in 1'50"794.
Hypercar. The first race got underway in damp track conditions, with wet-weather tyres fitted, and air and track temperatures of 14°C and 13°C respectively. At the start, Pérez Companc in the number 90 car immediately moved into the lead on the opening lap, ahead of Lacorte in the number 47 car, setting a strong pace in the early stages before rain began to fall on the circuit. The two Bronze-rated drivers completed the first hour of the race in this order before handing over to Yifei Ye and Nicola Lacorte respectively. The order remained unchanged during the middle stages, with the track becoming increasingly wet and the first neutralisation taking place. The final hour saw Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco take to the track and was characterised by increasingly heavy rain, which also prompted the deployment of the Safety Car. During the final ten minutes under green-flag conditions, Nielsen managed to pull away from the Italian driver, crossing the finish line first in the number 90 car, with a 6"348 advantage over Cetilar Racing's number 47.
GT3. In the GT3 class, the best-placed Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo at the finish was AF Corse's number 50 car, which had also been involved in the battle for victory during the early stages of the race with Rafael Duran and Peter Dempsey at the wheel, before crossing the finish line in sixth place with David Perel driving. The other Prancing Horse crews had a much more challenging race: AF Corse's other car, driven by Francesco Piovanetti, Jef Machiels and official driver Alessio Rovera, finished 21st, while Ponos Racing's number 45 car, driven by Yorikatsu Tsujiko, Takuro Shinohara and Tadasuke Makino, finished 23rd. Finally, CarGuy Racing's number 57 car, entrusted to Takeshi Kimura, Mathys Jaubert and Esteban Masson, retired.
The programme. The second Asian Le Mans Series race is scheduled to take place at Paul Ricard on Sunday, 15 November, once again over a duration of four hours, with the green flag at 1.15 p.m. local time.
