After putting the #13 LMP3 on pole for the first time since the team started racing with their LMP3, Kuba Smiechowski and Martin Hippe also won the LMP3 class in the Asian Le Mans serie race in Shanghai (China).

After not the best start, Smiechowski fell back to 5^thand after one hour was in seventh place. During the first full course yellow and safety car period of the race in the first hour, Smiechowski was one of the four LMP3 to come in for fuel.

In the second hour Smiechowski got into a good rythm while most other LMP3s had to come in for their first of three pit stops. Different to the European Le Mans series, all pit stops have the same time; 1m43s. Smiechowski had moved up to second place just before the safety car came out for the second time in the race. When the race returned to green, Smiechowski came in for fuel, new tyres and Martin Hippe took over. Hippe fell back to 4^thplace.

In the third hour Hippe moved up to second. He came in for fuel and new tyres in the last of the three pit stops and with 1h5m of the race left to go. He fell back to third and climbed back to second. With 30 minutes to go, Hippe moved to first when he passed the leading #2 United Autosports LMP3 when they had to stop for their last pit stop. He crossed the line after four hours and one lap in first place.

Martin Hippe:“A perfect weekend! It is really nice to be back on the top of the podium after our race at Portimao. The team gave us a fantastic car and engineer had the perfect strategy for the race. A big thanks to all of them. Now the hard work starts; to keep the momentum going and to have another good result in Japan.”

Kuba Smiechowski: “I couldn’t watch the last ten minutes of the race. I fully trust Martin (Hippe) but anything can happen. It was a relief to take the checquered flag. It’s such a great feeling to win. We are one of the new teams here, but we know there are a lot of people cheering for us. And today we gave them plenty of reasons to cheer for. We took pole and the win in our first race in Asia. I hope to keep this feeling and duplicate it in Japan.”

Michael Keese(Technical Director): “It feels great that after all the preparations we had to do to come here while we were still battling for points in two other championships, to be on the highest step of the podium. We came here with the intention to win and that is what we did today.”