Asian Le Mans | No. 14 car regrets missing the Abu Dhabi race, No. 2 car fully prepares for the race

On February 14, the Friday practice of the 2024-2025 Asian Le Mans Series officially started at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Climax Racing's two Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo cars conducted a lot of long-distance race trials in private practice and two official practice sessions. The driving task of the No. 2 car on Friday was mainly handed over to the Am driver for more qualifying practice, while Elias and Ralf participated in the vehicle tuning test. Zhou Bihuang, Elias and Ralf appeared one after another and made the fastest lap of this practice session of 1:54.406, ranking 23rd in the GT category.

In the first official practice session, Zhou Bihuang once again simulated the qualifying race at the beginning of the practice session and achieved consecutive results within the 1:54 range, laying the foundation for tomorrow's official qualifying. After that, the three drivers took turns driving according to the plan. After Elias Seppanen completed 10 laps, he handed the car over to Zhou Bihuang again, and finally Ralf Aron took the lead. The team accumulated 39 laps in practice and ranked 12th with a lap time of 1:53.825.

As night fell and the track lights came on, the second practice session officially began. Zhou Bihuang made full preparations for the qualifying session. After completing 7 laps of sprint, he handed the car to Elias Seppanen and Ralf Aron for long-distance simulation testing. The two drivers continued to push the car in the second half of the practice and found the limit of the car in the long distance. The team completed Friday's practice with 36 laps of long-distance testing and the fastest score of 1:54.266 in this session.

The No. 14 team was led by Lucas Auer and Lu Wei to participate in private practice. Lucas Auer made fast lap times in the early stages of practice, and came to the top of the GT category with a time of 1:53.339, laying the foundation for the vehicle settings for this weekend's competition. After that, Lv Wei entered the cockpit, but unfortunately the vehicle had a mechanical failure after three laps and accidentally hit the guardrail, ending this practice session early.

Later, Lv Wei confirmed that due to physical condition, he could not continue to participate in the Abu Dhabi race, and the No. 14 car was confirmed to withdraw from the two rounds of competition on Saturday and Sunday. However, the team still tried its best to repair the vehicle, and Chinese drivers Ling Kang and Lucas Auer participated in the first practice session to confirm the vehicle's condition.

Tomorrow, the 2024-2025 Asian Le Mans Series will start the qualifying and first round of the race. Climax Racing will go all out to meet the competition for the last two races of the season in the best condition.

First session free practice results
Second free practice results

2024-2025 Asian Le Mans Series Abu Dhabi race schedule (Beijing time)
February 15 (Saturday) 14:50-15:05 GT qualifying 19:00-23:00 First round race
February 16 (Sunday) 20:30-24:30 Second round race real-time results https://live.asianlemansseries.com/ Live race address