Brendon Leitch and Leipert Motorsport teammates Gabriel Rindone and Marco Mapelli recovered from a Lap 1 spin to finish fifth in class in a rain-affected Asian Le Mans Series opener at Sepang on Saturday.
Having qualified 30th of 39 entries for the four-hour race, the team were on the backfoot immediately, with Rindone starting the race and coming into trouble at a congested Turn 2, spinning and dropping to the rear of the field.
The Dubai-based driver recovered well, charging forward in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 before handing over to Leitch for the mid-stages.
The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe champion continued to work forward, putting in a tidy stint and bringing the team into contention for a podium, with Mapelli tasked with bringing the race home for the team.
A darkening sky and incoming thunderstorm threatened to shake up proceedings in the final hour. Light drizzle saw track conditions continue to change, with the Viper Niza Racing LMP3 entry bringing out the Safety Car shortly after when it made contact with the wall and beached at Turn 1 in the hands of Josh Burdon.
While under caution the conditions quickly deteriorated to monsoon-like levels, with the majority of the field making a late stop to change to wet tyres as the race went green.
Increasing amounts of standing water saw several drivers come into grief over the laps that followed, Race Control calling for a Safety Car which was eventually upgraded to a red flag with 10 minutes to run.
The race would not restart, seeing the #42 Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II claim GT honours ahead of Attempto Racing’s own Audi R8, and their teammates in the #43 Evo II.
Mapelli had sat as high as third in class ahead of the caution, but dropped two places during the closing stages to finish fifth.
Earl Bamber and teammates Adrian D’Silva and Kerong Li finished 12th in-class in the #84 Porsche 911 GT3 R, gaining several positions late in the race to finish directly behind their teammates.
Triple Eight Racing’s Mercede-AMG GT3 Evo, which featured Supercars star Broc Feeney, came home seventh.
The overall winners were LMP2 runners 99 Racing, whose Oreca 07 Gibson was shared by former Formula 1 driver Nikita Mazepin, Al Harty Ahmad and Louis Deletraz.
The Asian Le Mans Series returns for Round 2 at the same venue on Sunday evening, with the race beginning at 6.45 pm and shown on a free live stream at motorsport.tv.
Header Image: Leipert Motorsport
