4 total invites are given to the champions of each class after the title fight settled at Sepang.
The Algarve Pro Racing's #24 Ligier won the race after 4 hours with Harrison Newey ahead of #22 United Autosports Ligier JS P2, but the Anglo American team took the LMP2 title and an automatic invitation for 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.
The United Autosports #22 of Phil Hanson and Paul Di Resta was quite consistent throughout the race and led the pack for most of the race until the pitstops. Harrison Newey then took the lead and won the race.
However, the sister Algarve Pro Ligier was in problems, retiring in the final hour due to reliability issue. They were not the only unfortunate crew, as #23 United Autosport lost their potential LMP2 Am championship due the same issue as APR.
Pole sitter Pipo Derani led the race and maintained his lead till the stewards gave a drive-through penalty for a jump start and then gearbox glitch and time spent in garage dropped the #8 Spirit of Race down the order.
Philip Hanson then took the lead for United Autosports but safety car for #8 Spirit of Race enabled #24 APR close the gap. Philip Hanson pitted from lead for driver change and came out behind the APR car. #35 Panis Barathez was in the lead ahead of #24 and #22 after Hanson's stop but Andrea Pizzitola made a great move to take the lead when the safety car went into the pits. The car then stayed in the lead even after the driver change as Harrison Newey took the car to the chequered flag.
#35 car went on to secure a podium position behind the 2 championship contenders.
#4 ARC Bratislava took the LMP2 Am title after #23 and #25 cars retired. The Slovakian team will now be invited for Le Mans race in June to contest in LMP2 class.
In LMP3, Inter Europol team claimed the championship and Le Mans invite in style. Jakub Smiechowski and Martin Hippe got lucky and gave the race their all to win the championship with close battles from United Autosports and Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen.
#7 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen took second position in LMP3 class with Nick Ascock and Christian Olsen, scoring the best result of the season.
#2 United Autosports in LMP3 class was a strong contender for championship but lost their chances of winning due to a long long pitstop that dropped the trio of Wayne Boyd, Garret Grist and Chris Buncombe down the order. But the team pulled a great recovery drive and finished in third position to end the season.
In GT class, #11 Car Guy Ferrari dominated the race after problems came for the #88 pole sitting Audi R8. The team took victory in all 4 races of the season, establishing themselves aa true warriors in the GT class. James Calado, Kei Cozzolino and Takeshi Kimura along with Car Guy team are invited to take part in Le Mans.
#88 TianShi Racing Team Audi that took the pole position led the race early on but lost pace before closing the gap under safety car.
The team was running well and closing in for the lead until a drive-through penalty for #88 car due to track limits took the burden off the Japanese team's shoulder and emerged them as the victor of the race.
The sister #66 TSRT Audi retired due to steering issues as well as the suspension damage that the car suffered in second half of the race.
TF Sport was last in the class, with #5 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 retiring from Asian series in not really good way.
4 Total teams are now invited for the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans: #22 United Autosports in LMP2, #11 Car Guy (with a GTE-spec entry in GTE-Pro or Am), #13 Inter Europol Competition (with a LMP2 or GTE-Am entry) and #4 ARC Bratislava in LMP2 class.
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