Timely victory moves Liu and Picariello into championship lead ahead of Shanghai season finale

Anthony Liu and Alessio Picariello won 2024’s penultimate Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS round at Shanghai to move ahead of long-time championship leader Lu Wei before Sunday’s title showdown.

Early retirement for Origine’s Porsche gave Absolute’s crew an opportunity to claw back some of their 19-point deficit. But they achieved far more than that with a new chassis that finally cured the issues which had, until now, prevented Liu from mounting a sustained title defence. They now head into tomorrow’s finale six points and four grid positions ahead of Lu but with 15 seconds more to serve during their pitstop.

Picariello passed Audi Sport Asia Absolute’s James Yu and Akash Nandy in the final four minutes to turn a one-point deficit into a six-point lead. But the R8, which also won at Okayama, still collected Silver class victory after starting in the same position.

FAW Audi Sport Asia’s Franky Cheng and Adderly Fong completed the overall podium by holding off Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli’s Porsche. But the Origine pair are now just four points behind their team-mate Lu and, unlike Liu and Picariello, have no extra time in the pits tomorrow. They also scored another Silver-Am victory.

Further back, Zhou Bihuang and Hu Yuqi claimed Am victory for Climax Racing. But David Tjiptobiantoro wrapped up the class title alongside Garage 75 team-mate Christian Colombo whose absence earlier in the year at Chang prevents him from sharing the crown.

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE

To some degree, after 11 races this year’s overall championship battle now boils down to a winner-takes-all scenario between Liu/Picariello and Lu, while Yuan/Ye are also still very much in contention.

The turnaround was triggered by Andre Canard’s lunge on Lu at Turn 1 halfway through the opening stint whilst the pair ran sixth and seventh. Heavy contact lifted the Ferrari off its wheels, but also stripped a chunk on bodywork from the Porsche’s right rear corner, which forced Lu into retirement. Canard, who also retired before serving the resulting drive-through, apologised profusely for the incident, but the damage to Lu’s championship chances was already done.

That was further compounded by Liu re-taking fourth from Yuan after Origine’s other Porsche initially picked up a position at the start. The reigning champion was now best placed of the realistic title contenders, although Cheng was one spot further ahead in the FAW Audi that needed a big result to remain in the hunt.

Ahead of him lay poleman David Chen (Harmony Racing) who was jumped by Yu at the start. The pair ran together throughout the first 30 minutes before Absolute’s R8 stopped one lap before the window closed. Chen’s pace over the extra tour saw his co-driver Liang Jiatong emerge in the lead, but Nandy’s warmer tyres helped him restore the pre-pitstop order a few corners later.

Picariello, who was now on the tail of the front three, used the same unfolding scenario and sequence of corners to vault from fourth to second, first by passing Fong and then Liang.

The two Absolute cars broke clear thereafter, but it wasn’t until the conclusion of a late Full Course Yellow period that Picariello finally forced Nandy into a small mistake at the long Turn 12.

Behind, Fong fought off Ye over the final laps to complete the overall podium and deny Origine’s crew three more points in the title battle. However, the FAW crew’s own hopes are now over: although 25 points behind – the same for winning Race 2 – they would lose the championship on countback.

Yuan and Ye, meanwhile, head into Sunday’s race 10 points behind Liu and Picariello but, just like their team-mate Lu, without the handicap of a Success Penalty.

Liang and Chen’s Ferrari came home fifth overall, one place ahead of Craft-Bamboo’s charging Mercedes-AMG that set fastest time on the penultimate lap thanks to Daniel Morad.

Seventh went to VSR’s erstwhile championship chasing Lamborghini despite Okayama winners Bian Ye and Edoardo Liberati serving the maximum Success Penalty. But the performance of the race perhaps belonged to AAS Phantom Global’s Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak and Joel Eriksson who climbed 23 places from where they started to finish eighth.

Results are HERE