Pasin Lathouras wraps up the year with fighting fourth in Sepang 15.12.2016: At the end of a long, tough and wet Sepang 12 Hour, Pasin Lathouras was pleased to finish fourth overall in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 488

At the end of a long, tough and wet Sepang 12 Hour, Pasin Lathouras was pleased to finish fourth overall in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 having mixed it up with the factory Porsche and Audi entries throughout the grueling race.
 


That result concludes the 23-year-old Thai driver’s racing season – however the year in started back at Monza, Italy, in April with the opening round of the Blancpain GT Endurance Series and taking in the whole championship before wrapping up with an Asian ‘double date’, starting with the FIA GT World Cup in Macau last month and concluding with the Sepang 12 Hour, which was also the final round of the SRO-promoted Intercontinental GT Cup.
 


Pasin was in fact returning to the Malaysian F1 circuit three years after last competing here – in the 2013 Sepang 12 Hour – as his career has since taken him out of Asia and into Europe. Last weekend he was driving once again alongside his teammates in Blancpain GT this year, Michele Rugolo and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
 


The track has been resurfaced and reprofiled since his last visit and Pasin quickly got back in the groove; however the #50 Ferrari was on the back foot when a technical issue stopped the car from completing a full lap during the ‘Top 15 Shootout’ and that meant starting from P15 on the grid.
 


The crew would have to dig in and push to gain the lost ground; they did just that – and a whole lot more. Conditions proved typical of the Sepang 12 Hour, rain arrived just as the dusk was rolling in and there would be showers on and off for the second half of the race.
 


Pasin and his teammates took the weather in their stride, fighting up from their lowly starting point to join the intense battle between the factory teams playing out at the front of the race. Such was the commitment put in by the #50 car’s drivers he was able to lead the race during his first stint and run at a faster pace than anyone else on track.



With fourteen ‘Platinum’ rated drivers on the entry list (Pasin is currently classified as a ‘Silver’ level driver, two positions lower in the rankings) that was a huge achievement for the Thai who was also one of the youngest drivers in the field.




It clearly demonstrated just how much he has achieved after three seasons in Europe – and particularly this year racing against the biggest and most competitive GT field in the world in Blancpain GT Endurance Cup.
 


The multiple appearances of rain during the race didn’t play into the hands the AF Corse team and twice the #50 car had to make an extra pitstop to swap to wet tyres and that compromised the chase for a podium finish – or indeed victory.



 However, elbowing the private Ferrari right in amongst the factory cars in fourth place when the checkered flag waved at the stroke of midnight was a satisfying way to end the race.
 


The Sepang 12 Hour concludes Pasin’s year on track, details of his 2017 racing programme will be announced in the New Year.


 
Pasin Lathouras: “It was great to be back at Sepang after a few years away I raced here a lot earlier in my career and I love the circuit. That’s the same story for the Sepang 12 Hours, it was my third time and it’s a great race, always such a challenge and this year was no different with tricky conditions for pretty much half of the race.



 I think it was a good way to end the year, although of course it would have been nice to get onto the podium, but I’m happy with the result and pleased with my pace as we were up against factory teams and we were always fighting in amongst them for the whole 12 hours and we held our own.



 I would also like to thank my sponsors and everyone who has supported me all year and I’m already looking forward to getting back on track next year.”




- Edd Ellison - photo Lathouras