Of his many visits to the Sepang International Circuit (SIC), Round 4 of The Super Series (TSS) was truly a special one for Vincent Floirendo. That’s because this would be his first time (along with co-driver Markus Winkelhock) to stand on the top step of the podium and claim his maiden TSS race win.
The pair was immediately on pace as soon as they hit the track with the #55 ENsport by Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II consistently in the Top 3 spot during Free Practice. Although a storm rolled in just in time for Qualifying, Vincent did well adapting to the tricky conditions and set the 5th fastest time in QTT1. Markus further improved on their starting position for QTT2 and put them on the first row of the grid, just behind 7-time Macau GP winner and current Formula E driver Edoardo Mortara in the #11 Porsche 991.2 GT3R.
Blessed with clear skies and scorching Malaysian weather, Race 1 got underway on Saturday with Vincent first behind the wheel. He drove a solid stint and stayed out of trouble in spite of the multiple Safety Car periods before handing the car over to Markus still in P7. The German ex-Formula 1 driver then proceeded to hunt after the leaders and picked up places at almost every lap. Muscling his way to the front, he later brought the #55 Audi R8 LMS across the finish line in 1st to secure his and Vincent’s very first win in TSS with an 8.283 secs gap to spare.
Not only did this move them to the top of the GT3 Drivers’ standings overnight, but also made Vincent the first Filipino to win a Super Car race in TSS.
Hopes of a repeat in Race 2, however, did not come into fruition. Markus and Edoardo Mortara banged wheels on the very first lap with Mortara ending up in the gravel. Markus thankfully escaped relatively unscathed and managed to claw back lost ground to get them back as high as P2. Serving a 15 secs success penalty dropped the #55 ENSport Audi R8 LMS down to P6 during the driver change, but Vincent never gave up the fight. He eventually caught up to the #91 BMW M4 GT3 only to suffer a fuel pump problem. While he made it back to the pits where the issue was resolved, it dashed any chances of a strong result with the pair crossing the line 12th in GT3.
There’s a long break ’til the final round of TSS in December when it heads back to the Chang International Circuit in Thailand. But before that, Vincent, Markus, and Absolute Racing will make a stop at Marina Bay Street Circuit this September 15/17 as part of the Singapore GP support race.
Vincent Floirendo: “A mixed weekend in Malaysia. Ecstatic to win my first race in TSS, but also ran out of luck on Sunday. Thank you to the whole team and now looking forward to the Singapore GP on the second week of September. They changed the track layout this year and hopefully I do better this year. Don’t want to think about it too much and just enjoy every race.”
