If the cold weather at Fuji Speedway in Japan wasn’t a factor to consider in the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series, the rain also made things more interesting than it was meant to be, and Algarve Pro Racing won with the No. 24 Ligier JS P2 of Andrea Pizzitola and Harrison Newey taking advantage of the details and by having a better choice in the pit stop strategy.
Harrison Newey in the No. 24 APR Ligier was setting the pace and leading the pack from the start, and the No. 65 Viper Niza Ligier was a great surprise as not only it was leading the LMP3 class but also was featuring in the overall top 3 for about 20 minutes. CarGuy Racing had a good start but a penalty and a puncture let the GT class lead slide to the No. 66 TianShi Audi while the sister No. 88 car was in second place.
Near the end of the first hour the rain combined with extremely low temperatures brought some chaos to the field, with lots of cars from all three classes going off track and spinning, so the first pit window was used to change from dry to wet tires, and this changed the overall lead in favor of the No. 22 United Autosports Ligier. The LMP3 lead changed to the No. 13 InterEuropol Ligier, so only the GT class kept the same leader in the No. 66 TianShi Audi.
The halfway part saw position changes happening only because of different pit windows, although nothing was decided in any of the classes, with the LMP3 fight between the No. 13 InterEuropol Ligier and the No. 3 United Autosports Ligier being particularly close. Despite the offs, not Safety Car intervention was registered until the halfway of the last hour, when the No. 36 Eurasia Ligier LMP3 crashed and destroyed the left rear wheel.
The final hour saw the LMP3 lead change in favor of the No. 2 United Autosports Ligier thanks to the good pace of Kay van Berlo, while the No. 11 CarGuy Ferrari settled for the GT lead and the No. 24 APR Ligier holding firmly the LMP2 lead. None of them got out of their top positions, so it was just a case of cruising to the finish line.
Paul Di Resta and Phil Hanson lead the LMP2 standings with 37 points against 34 from Pipo Derani, Côme Ledogar and Alexander West. Guy Cosmo, Patrick Byrne and Salih Yoluç lead the LMP2-Am standings with 45 points against 43 of Miro Konopka, Kang Ling and Darren Burke.
Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe are comfortably in the LMP3 lead with 44 points while James Calado, Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura are well ahead in the GT class with 51 points, missing a perfect score by not having the Shanghai pole position.
The series will return only in early 2019, with the 6 Hours of Thailand to be held at Buriram on January 12th.
PHOTO: Asian Le Mans Series
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