Debut win for Absolute Racing secures third overall victory for Audi Sport.
Markus Winkelhock, Yu Kuai and Andrew Haryanto prove unbeatable. Christopher Haase, Peter Kox and Henk Kiks complete Audi R8 LMS 1-2 finish with B-Quik Absolute Racing.
Audi Sport took its third consecutive Sepang 12 Hours victory when the Pro-Am line-up of Audi Sport driver Markus Winkelhock, Audi Sport Asia Junior Yu Kuai and FIA Bronze talent Andrew Haryanto dominated the race to give Absolute Racing its first win in the prestigious Asian event.
Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase, Peter Kox and Henk Kiks completed an eye-catching Audi one-two finish in the sister B-Quik Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II after 215 uninterrupted laps of racing at the 5.543km Malaysian track.
Marking the triumphant return of endurance racing to Southeast Asia, the first running of the Sepang 12 Hours since 2016 bore witness to a master-class of impeccable strategy and fierce driver performances from Absolute Racing, the team’s genius five-stop strategy sealing a dominant win after they led for 91 laps.
Haryanto started from pole after each of the three driver’s best qualifying times combined set the starting order. Despite a 10-second track limit penalty, the trio proved dominant, with Winkelhock crossing the line with a margin of more than 16 seconds.
Meanwhile, an epic final push from Haase – who set the fastest and second fastest laps of the race – saw him take the second Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II to P2 in the closing minutes.
The overall victory earns Haryanto a massive 1,500 Audi Sport Asia Trophy points, seeing him enter the 2023 edition of the season-long contest in top spot. B-Quik Absolute Racing Am star and team principal Kiks earns 1,200 points with his second-place finish.
