Cetilar Racing completed a clean sweep of victories at the opening round of the 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series this afternoon, with its #47 ORECA 07 – Gibson triumphing in a rain-shortened race at the Sepang International Circuit.
For the second day in a row, Antonio Fuoco starred aboard the car he shares with Roberto Lacorte and Charles Milesi, with the Italian pulling out a 21-second lead on wet tyres in a single stint as the track dried in the penultimate hour, before adding a further 10 seconds to that advantage following a switch to slick tyres.
The Safety Car was deployed with 25 minutes to go, due to multiple cars going off at Turn 3, wiping out Fuoco’s advantage, and setting up a sprint to the finish, only for a third rain shower of the race to hit the circuit.
As track conditions rapidly deteriorated, the call was made with 13 minutes to go to Red Flag the race, handing an elated Cetilar crew its second victory in as many days.
Second went to the #25 Algarve Pro Racing ORECA, following a stellar drive from Enzo Trulli, with the LMP2 rookie coming out on top in an entertaining battle with the #4 CrowdStrike-backed ORECA of teammate Malthe Jakobsen, as the pair swapped places three times in under half a lap during the closing stint.
Cetilar first claimed the lead towards the end of the second hour, when the off-strategy John Falb, who was the only Bronze not to pit as soon as their minimum drive time was completed, stopped aboard the #20 Algarve Pro ORECA.
The Italian squad, however, lost out at the following round of pit stops, which took place under Virtual Safety Car conditions, with Fuoco emerging behind Tom Dillmann in the #25 ORECA. The 2024 Le Mans winner pounced instantly on the restart, reclaiming the lead at Turn 4 and metronomically pulling out a 21-second margin over Jakobsen, who had swiftly followed Fuoco past Dillmann.
A slow final pit stop for Jakobsen extended the lead margin to 31 seconds, dropping the Dane back into the clutches of Dillmann’s co-driver Trulli and giving Fuoco a lead he could comfortably manage to the end.
Trulli first passed Jakobsen up the inside of Turn 14 with 38 minutes to go, with Jakobsen returning the favour at the following corner, only for Trulli to fight back his past at the start of the following lap. The 20-year-old then proceeded to pull a margin of five seconds over his more experienced teammate, before separate offs for the #6 United Autosports LMP2 and #1 Team Virage LMP3 saw the Safety Car deployed.
Fourth went to DKR Engineering’s #3 entry, despite contact between Mathias Beche and the lapped #6 United ORECA of Paul Di Resta, resulting in the latter’s late incident, ahead of the #88 Proton Competition and #5 United Autosports ORECA.
The pole-sitting #49 High Class Racing entry finished seventh, with RD Limited, Nielsen Racing and ARC Bratislava completing the top 10.
With the podium identical in the opening two races of the season, the top of the LMP2 standings reflects the race result, with Cetilar Racing leaving Malaysia with a 14-point advantage over Algarve Pro Racing’s #25 entry of Dillmann, Trulli and defending drivers’ champion Michael Jensen.
The weather again proved decisive at Sepang, with multiple short, sharp showers repeatedly threatening to turn the race on its head.
The first, which arrived 35 minutes in, was incredibly localised, with the run from Turn 3 to Turn 4 drenched whilst other sections of the circuit remained dry. Multiple cars were caught out as they struggled through the opening sector on slick tyres, including the GT pole-sitting #66 JMR Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which was running third in class at the time.
Yasser Shahin ended up stranded on the edge of the Turn 3 gravel trap, leaving him helpless as Antares Au aquaplaned aboard the #10 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and collided with the Corvette, with the damage forcing both cars to retire. To make matters worse for JMR, the #66 Corvette was then also collected by the #34 Racing Team Turkey Z06 GT3.R, which was able to return to the track following repairs.
By the time the race resumed 20 minutes later, slicks were already the correct tyre choice, with United Autosports’ early leader Giorgio Roda, who had traded the top spot with High Class’ Jens Reno Møller and Inter Europol Competition’s Georgios Kolovos during the early stages, amongst those caught out having changed to wet tyres.
The second band of rain, which hit at exactly the halfway mark, was more sustained, with an off for Bretton Racing’s #26 Ligier LMP3 requiring intervention and bringing out the Virtual Safety Car during which Dillmann passed Fuoco. Except for a brief Full Course Yellow to collect debris, this proved to be the final interruption to the race before the final Safety Car.
In GT, Kessel Racing scored victory with its #74 Ferrari 296 GT3 piloted by Dustin Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall.
Blattner climbed from 15th on the grid to second during his opening double stint, with Lulham making quick work of QMMF by GetSpeed’s Ghanim Al-Maadheed for the lead after being installed behind the wheel towards the end of the second hour.
As the #37 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, which had led since the end of the opening lap, started to fall down the leaderboard, the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO and #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche emerged as Kessel’s closest challengers in the latter stages.
Both WRT’s Dan Harper and Origine’s Laurin Heinrich were catching Marschall in the final hour, with the lead margin falling to only 10 seconds just before the race-ending Safety Car was deployed, denying the factory aces a shot at victory.
The Race 1-winning #9 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG overcame multiple off-track excursions to finish sixth, meaning Kessel has passed the German outfit by two points for the championship lead.
LMP3 honours went to the #17 CLX Motorsport Ligier JS P325 – Toyota of Paul Lanchere, Kevin Rabin and Alexander Jacoby, ahead of the #71 23Events Racing and #29 Forestier Racing by VPS Racing entries.
CLX completed both of its timed pit stops during the opening Virtual Safety Car, giving the team a strategic advantage throughout, with it cycling back to the lead as soon as the second hour.
Team Virage’s #8 Ligier was comfortably CLX’s closest challenger, and briefly claimed the lead after CLX served a five-second penalty for a FCY infringement at its final pit stop, but an unscheduled stop cost the Polish outfit a chance of victory and dropped them to fifth.
Fourth went to the #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier, which ceded the championship lead to the race winners.
The 2025/26 Asian Le Mans Series season continues with another pair of four-hour races at the Dubai Autodrome, from 30th January to 1st February 2026.
Images courtesy of Asian Le Mans Series