A FINAL RACE WEEKEND TO REMEMBER FOR TEAM FXPRIMUS AYLEZO

Team FXPrimus Aylezo fought hard during the final Blancpain Lamborghini Super Trofeo race weekend to claim one podium at Sepang International Circuit today. The team drove well despite the heat in the first race, finishing third and under wet conditions during race two, finishing fifth in class.

The team suffered from electrical and suspension issues in race one but still managed to set impressive times to finish on the podium in the morning race. Afiq Yazid started the race for the team from third on the grid and immediately passed the second placed car at the start. From there, he pushed on and a few laps later managed to overtake the leading car and held on to the lead all the way, passing the car to Zen Low in P1.

“I am happy with the results of the race today with the podium. My stint was good, I had a really good start and I managed to overtake the second placed car almost immediately. The weather was really hot and at the end of about five laps I started to struggle with the car.

“I managed to put a little bit of pressure on the car in front and at turn two he made a mistake, I think he missed a gear. So I had my opportunity to overtake him at the next turn on the inside.

“Towards the end of my stint, the tyres had degraded from the hot weather, but I knew I had to reserve the tyres for Zen when I handed the car over so from there I braked smooth and braked early to conserve as much as I can. We will however have to make some setup changes for the second race as it is expected to be hotter, so we will have to conserve the tyres a bit more” ended Afiq.

Zen took over the car and as he went out, the team lost one position after a slower pit-stop but Zen kept his head down and tried to maintain his position as best he can with degrading tyres. “At the driver change, we lost some time at the pit as we had to reset the car after the car started to overheat while on standstill. We lost about four to five seconds there. As I went out, the second placed car passed me for the lead. I managed to hold on to second for a few laps but as the race went on the tyres degraded further and it started to slide everywhere and it just wasn’t driveable. As Afiq said, the weather was so hot that the tyres wore off.

“There was nothing I could do but just kept my head down and pushed as hard as I can, but another car passed and that was about it. We managed to bring the car home safely in third, I am not very happy but that was the best that I could do.

The team then immediately focused on race two and just ten minutes before the start, the skies opened up and a wet race was declared leaving the final race to start behind the safety car. Conditions only improved halfway through the first stint as the rain stopped and the track began to dry out. At the stop, the team opted to change to slicks as Zen passed the car over to Afiq.

The team’s decision proved costly as the track took longer than usual to dry up, leaving Afiq to struggle with the car throughout the first half of his stint. Too much time was lost and the team could only manage to finish the race fifth in class.

“We made some adjustments to the car as the car was suffering from a lot of understeer. After three laps behind the safety car and midway through the race, the rain stopped. But I was having a lot of understeer again and our Race Engineer just told me to take it easy. Right before I pit-in, 60-70% of the track was drying out, so he asked me ‘what do you think’ and to me I think Afiq can handle it so we decided to go with slicks, but unfortunately the gamble didn’t pay off” said Zen dejectedly after the race.

“As I went out, in the first few laps it was very very slippery as the track was still mostly damp and wet in some spots. On top of that, we lost about one and a half laps during the pit-stop. It was just the wrong timing, maybe another 20 minutes and the track would have been completely dry.

“At the end, the team did a really good job but its racing and anything can happen. Luck was just not on our side during the second race. The Championship is done and now we just have to learn from today and look ahead to a new season next year” ended Afiq.

Team FXPrimus Aylezo would like to thank all its sponsors for all their support throughout the year, and is looking forward to a stronger year in 2015.

The 2014 Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Asia has taken the team to five race circuits around Asia, beginning in May at Sepang International Circuit before heading to Indonesia, to Japan and China before returning to Malaysia for the finale and the World Final.

Follow Aylezo on www.aylezo.com and catch the snippets of Team FXPrimus Aylezo’s programme on the site and through its social media sites including www.facebook.com/aylezo and www.twitter.com/aylezo. The full programmes will be aired in 2015.

Team FXPrimus Aylezo is backed by FXPrimus, Prime Mantle Corporation, JH Italia, Lamborghini Kuala Lumpur, Prince Lubricants, Ecotint, CapitalTV, Splices TV, Ztro, Pholio, FX:1 Academy, Automotive Synergy.