Rain hampers the race proceedings in race 2 of the Asian Le Mans Series opening weekend
Sunday, December 08, 2024
Yesterday’s opening four hour round had already been a typical first day back scenario with incident and accident happening as early as turn one lap one for some, but at least for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews there was just the learning from yesterday to put into the equation for today.
Qualifying had already taken place with the #89 Earl Bamber Motorsport AMR of Anderson Tanoto, Brendon Leitch and Marco Sorensen again having beaten the #19 Blackthorn AMR entry of Jason Ambrose, Claude Bovet and David McDonald to start race two in P17 and P23 respectively out of a GT class size of twenty-five.
Like yesterday, race two again started under clear, bright and very warm track conditions, although this time rain was being forecasted being the end of the race but this time, the Vantage had received an overnight BoP improvement in terms of available boost compared to that of yesterday.
Like yesterday, race two again started under clear, bright and very warm track conditions, although this time rain was being forecasted being the end of the race but this time, the Vantage had received an overnight BoP improvement in terms of available boost compared to that of yesterday.
The race start was also more reserved from all this time and was thankfully without the opening damage that blighted yesterday’s event for many although an early spin for the #89 car saw Tanoto drop a lap to the pack on only the second lap of the race.
More significant issues for others in class were, however, just around the corner as yesterday’s GT class winner (#57 Car Guy Ferrari) made heavy impact with the #42 Lamborghini taking both out with damage and the first caution period of the race for the resulting clean-up operation.
With that, the appearance of the #19 Blackthorn Amr of Ambrose also elevated itself onto the tail of the class leaderboard in P18 with just over half an hour done soon after the completion of the first hour had the first reports of the predicted rain. Unfortunately, with both Aston Martins running at the tail of the GT pack, there was little of note to report as the race went into its second half other than the darkness of the cloud cover above deepening.
Just the as rain actually started to fall, the races second full course yellow was thrown – this time for debris caused by a tyre failing on an LMP2 after a significant lockup. Eventually released by the Safety Car with eighty-four minutes of the race remaining, rain Sepang style finally arrived with deteriorating track condition again bringing out the Safety Car just into the final hour of the race.
The red flag was eventually called a premature end to the race as the rains hammered down around the circuit with the car collecting as per Regulation along the start straight. With the race clock still counting down, the race was eventually called with little over fifteen minutes remaining.
Despite all of the above, both Aston Martin Racing powered crews again did what several crews failed to do either today or yesterday in completing the race albeit outside of the points awarding sharp end of the table. The #89 EBM crew again beat the #19 Blackthorn crew by the end of today’s racing with a P32 overall – P18 in class finish compared to the #19’s P35 overall – P20 finish as the teams now look forward to a two-month break in the proceedings before the now customary double header double header race weekends in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi in early February.
Photo credits – Teams / series / social media
