Malaysian Trio Take First Ever Win In World Endurance Championship Race

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- Malaysian trio Jazeman Jaafar, Nabil Jeffri and Weiron Tan claimed their maiden win of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) race in Japan on Sunday. They displayed a strong pace and great commitment to finish sixth in the overall classification and created history by becoming the first all-Malaysian line-up to win the LMP2 category in the six-hour race at the Fuji Speedway. The trio managed a total of 217 laps, crossing the line 26.087 seconds ahead of DC Racing teammates (car No 38) Ho Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry. Signatech Alpine Matmut's (car No 36) Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet were third in class (+44.3s). According to a statement issued by the Sepang International Circuit, Jazeman Jaafar said it was a hard battle at the beginning and he fought very hard with Anthony Davidson, when the track started to dry. "So we pitted early with the slicks under the safety car, which was a right decision to eventually give us an advantage on pace and took the lead in the race. Our car has improved in every practice session. “We missed the pole position in qualifying, but we had faith in our race pace. Everything went very well and we got our first victory in WEC. We are here to fight for the championship. Now we have made another step," he said. Four more rounds remain this season with China set to host the next leg with the Six Hours of Shanghai on Nov 18. -- BERNAMA