Sepang, Malaysia – The Al Manar Racing by Getspeed trio of Al Faisal al Zubair, Martin Konrad and Fabian Schiller finished fourth in the GT class in both four-hour races at the opening round of the 2023-2024 Asian Le Mans Series at the Sepang International Circuit.

The Omani, the Austrian and the German entered a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and visited the rain-soaked Malaysian circuit for the first time.

The second of the weekend’s races on Sunday afternoon finished under a yellow flag with victory going to the Pure Rxcing trio of Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm and Alex Malykhin in a Porsche 911 GT3 R. Schiller brought the Al Manar Racing by Getspeed car home in fourth in the final stint behind a Sainteloc Racing Audi and the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3.

Al Zubair said: “Fourth place today but, to sum it up, it was a very positive result after everything that happened. Martin had contact with two cars and we got a drive-through penalty and a stop-and-go penalty. Bringing that into account, it was a very good result. We got a bit lucky with the safety car timing but we had a great pit stop in the end to jump five cars and be in P4.

“But, unfortunately, with the damage we had on the car, it was difficult to go up to P3. Nonetheless, after being last with a drive-through we should be very happy with the results. We leave here third in the championship going on to our strong tracks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Overall, I think we should be happy.”

The trio overcame appalling track conditions and late heavy rain to finish fourth in race one when the heavens opened and a deluge ruined racing in the last 30 minutes. Track conditions deteriorated quickly and the race was red-flagged with 10 minutes to run.

Victory in the GT class went to Christopher Haase, Gilles Magnus and Alban Varutti in the Sainteloc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, with Dylan Pereira, Alex Aka and Andrey Mukovoz finishing second in the Attempto Racing Audi. The second Sainteloc Racing Audi finished third in the hands of Dennis Marschall, Paul Evrard and Zhou Bihuang.

Al Zubair said: “Martin had a bit of contact at the first corner but the car seemed okay. We were fourth after the start and then I felt the car was quite good in my stint. Unfortunately, I made a little mistake passing a car under a safety car restart, which had slowed down enough for me to think there was a problem and I wanted to avoid an accident. We got a drive-through penalty for that and finished fourth in the race. Nonetheless, it’s good points for the championship for a track where we came for the first time.”