{"id":1982,"date":"2020-02-18T17:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T17:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2020-02-18T17:30:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T17:30:50","slug":"podium-finish-in-sepang-for-negri-heading-to-alms-season-finale-in-buriram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/18\/podium-finish-in-sepang-for-negri-heading-to-alms-season-finale-in-buriram\/","title":{"rendered":"Podium Finish in Sepang for Negri Heading to ALMS Season Finale in Buriram"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sepang, Malaysia (18\u00a0February 2020) \u2013 Ozz Negri battled\u00a0through tricky conditions to secure a third-place finish in the 4 Hours of Sepang\u00a0on Saturday. The podium finish set up the Brazilian for a fast start as the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) heads straight to the Chang\u00a0International Circuit for the 2019\/2020 season finale this weekend.<\/p>\n

With the championship battle coming down to the wire, Negri, Francesco Piovanetti and Alessandro Pier Guidi\u00a0were hoping to take their No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 to a second podium finish heading into the Sepang race weekend.<\/p>\n

A four race championship, the Asian Le Mans Series headed to Sepang for round three of competition. For the first time in series history the race weekend featured both qualifying and the race on Saturday as well as the first time competitors would get the chance to race at the Sepang International Circuit at night.
\n
\nGetting off to a fast start, the No. 51 Ferrari immediately was second quickest in FP1. That pace held through qualifying on Saturday, landing the Spirit of Race Ferrari on the front row for the four hour endurance race later that afternoon.<\/p>\n

An intense storm that brought severe lightning and monsoon-like rains across the track delayed the start of the race with the field taking the green flag behind the safety car and under yellow. Piovanetti managed his first stint in the Ferrari on a rain soaked track with slick tires and brought it into pit lane for a driver change, Negri now behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

Starting his stint a lap down, Negri headed back out on a slowly drying track surface. Laying down consistent lap times on slick tires, Negri pushed to the finish of the race to give Spirit of Race its second podium finish of the ALMS season.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0third place\u00a0finish brought\u00a0Spirit of Race into a championship battle\u00a0for the final round at Buriram this weekend. The team now sits just\u00a0seven points behind the championship leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had an amazing race,\u201d said Negri. \u201cFrancesco (Piovanetti) did a fantastic job keeping the car on track in such difficult conditions. When I got into the car, we were a lap down with slicks on, but the track was still drying. I had so much fun pushing the car\u00a0as\u00a0hard\u00a0as I could. Near the end of my stint, the track was still damp, but I was putting down consistently\u00a0quick laps. I am proud\u00a0this team for taking home a podium finish at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negri\u00a0and the Spirit of Race team\u00a0will head\u00a0straight to the\u00a0Chang International\u00a0Circuit for the 2019\/2020 ALMS season finale\u00a0this weekend. The 4 Hours of Buriram will see the field of LMP2, LMP3 and GT machines on track in Thailand to take on the\u00a04.55km,\u00a012-turn\u00a0road\u00a0course.<\/p>\n

Negri and his teammates return to the\u00a0F1 grade\u00a0track after scoring a podium finish in the 2018\/2019 edition\u00a0of the event. The trio carry momentum into the event weekend looking to secure the\u00a0ALMS\u00a0GT Championship after scoring two consecutive podiums in the previous outings in Tailem Bend and Sepang. Stepping in for\u00a0Pier Guidi-who will be in World Endurance Championship action-will be Daniel Serra.<\/p>\n

The 4 Hours of Buriram kicks off with\u00a0free\u00a0practice on Saturday, February 22 with the marquee event on Sunday, February 23rd<\/sup>.<\/div>\n

Weekend Schedule (all times local):
\nFree Practice 1 – 22 Feb 2020 08:40 – 10:10
\nFree Practice 2 – 22 Feb 2020 12:30 – 14:00
\nQualifying GT and GT Cup: 22 Feb 2020 16:35 – 16:50
\n4 Hours of Buriram – 23 Feb 2020 11:45 – 15:45<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sepang, Malaysia (18\u00a0February 2020) \u2013 Ozz Negri battled\u00a0through tricky conditions to secure a third-place finish in the 4 Hours of Sepang\u00a0on Saturday. The podium finish set [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1984,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}