SEPANG, Feb 4 — The Malaysian trio of Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Afiq Ikhwan Yazid of the Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota team failed to repeat their podium finish in the LMP2 class at 2017-2018 Asian Le Mans Series when they ended in the fifth place at Sepang International Circuit here today.
In the four-hour endurance race, the team was consistently in the second place before the engine of Oreca 05 Nissan driven by Weiron broke down in the last 15 minutes of the race.
The trio celebrated a third place podium finish at the third Asian Le Mans in Buriram, Thailand but had to be satisfied with the fifth place in four hours, three minutes 51.298 seconds this time.
Speaking to reporters, Jazeman said the technical hitch in the engine snuffed out their chances of a podium at the last race of the series.
“I am very disappointed as we were almost there for the podium. We drove well, each exhibiting competitive racing but luck was not on our side,” said Jazeman.
Nonetheless, another Malaysian driver, Nabil Jeffri representing the Eurasia Motorsports with his teammates, Marco Asmer and Jake Parsons completed the podium in the third place in 4:03:12.451s.
“For me, the success of the team is our fate. I am also racing in the series for the first time and is satisfied with our team’s performance and I am also fast adapting to the engine.
“The team is satisfied with my performance, despite my debut in LMP2,” said Nabil.
Another Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota team represented by Stephane Richelmi, Harrison Newey and Thomas Laurent clocked 4:02:06.258 seconds to win the race.
Another BBT team comprising Anthony Xu Liu, Davide Rizzo, Pipo Deranni were in second place with a time of 4:03:07.960s.
As the overall champion, Jackie Chan DC Racing X Jota represented by Stephane Richelmi, Harrison Newey and Thomas Laurent qualified for Le Mans 24 Hours in France in June. — Bernama
