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Au and Liberati leave Sepang as joint Championship leaders after taking pole, one victory and one second place. Prabakaran, racing alone for the first time, finished on the podium in Sunday’s race.
VSR fielded two cars in the opening round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Championship. The number 98 car was driven by local hero Kumar Prabakaran in the LB Cup class and Alex Au from Hong Kong took charge of the team’s number 66 Huracan Evo. For the Sepang race he was partnered by Italian Edoardo Liberati who replaced Yuki Nemoto, unavailable due to illness. Together they competed in Pro-Am.
Qualifying for Saturday’s night race saw Au take the Pro-Am pole in the first session, setting a time good enough for third overall. Prabakaran’s time was fifth fastest in LB Cup. A heavy rain storm just before the cars went out on to the grid meant the race started behind the safety car with all but two cars on wet weather tyres. After three laps the field was released and Au quickly became involved in an intense scrap for third place with Han. Their dice continued until the pit window opened on lap eight and Au handed over to Liberati. When the pit window closed the Italian had a thirteen second deficit to the Pro-Am leader Yazid. As the track dried and his wet tyres became less effective he nevertheless remained one of the quickest on the track and by the time the chequered flag fell had reduced the gap to just over five seconds. A podium finish in the overall classification and second in Pro-Am was a worthy reward for Au and Liberati. Prabakaran finished fourth in LB Cup, completing his first full race distance since switching to driving alone.
Liberati qualified the 66 Lamborghini for Sunday’s race two and took a place on the front row after missing out on the overall pole by just 0.018 seconds in a hard fought session. Prabakaran lined up on row ten and made an excellent getaway, rocketing past three cars, as up front Liberati took charge of the race. The fastest man on track for the first half of the race he quickly built up a gap of eight seconds to Yazid and the rest of the field. Prabakaran passed the first stint involved in a fierce dice with Murroni, Cheung and Sui which only stopped when he pitted on lap ten. Liberati waited three more tours before handing the race lead over to Au who had no trouble staying ahead of the rest of the Pro-Am field. Behind him Pro driver Van Der Drift was making his way through the field and caught up to the VSR car in the closing stages. Au kept the Kiwi behind him until the very last lap and took the flag second overall and first in Pro-Am. Prabakaran finished third in LB Cup taking a well-deserved podium in front of his home crowd.
The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Championship now takes a break with round two scheduled for Suzuka in June.
