Victory hands Origine’s Yuan and Ye overall title in Shanghai finale

Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli added the overall Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS title to their Silver-Am crown by claiming victory in Shanghai’s season finale.

Origine’s crew trailed Anthony Liu and Alessio Picariello (Absolute Racing) by 10 points before the start but crucially had no Success Penalty to serve during their pitstop. Ye lined up fourth and pitted from third after passing Picariello before Yuan overtook the Mercedes-AMGs of Climax and Craft-Bamboo at the beginning of his stint.

Those two cars, driven respectively by Wang Zhongwei and Ralf Aron, and Cao Qi and Daniel Morad completed the overall podium after running one-two throughout the opening stint.

The third title contender, Lu Wei, lost fourth place to Chris Chia on the final lap. But it mattered little championship-wise: Yuan and Ye were already comfortably ahead, while Liu and Picariello’s sixth place – after serving 15 extra seconds for winning Race 1 on Saturday – had already guaranteed them the overall runners-up spot and Pro-Am title.

Further back, FAW Audi Sport Asia’s Franky Cheng and Adderly Fong clinched the Silver class title and also pipped Yuan/Ye to the China Cup crown by just one point.

Silver class race victory went Harmony’s way courtesy of David Chen and Liang Jiatong, while Zhou Bihuang and Hu Yuqi (Climax Racing) scored their second Am victory of the weekend.

ORIGINE DUO UPSET THE ODDS

Yuan and Ye lined up for the season finale third in the standings but ahead on the road of the cars they had to beat to win the title. Fourth then became third at the start of the formation lap when Finn Gehrsitz’s Absolute Corse Ferrari initially failed to leave the line and then retired in the pits.

However, it was Picariello who made the best getaway to jump Ye and Morad and slot in behind poleman Aron.

But the Porsche, which needed to gap both Ye and Lu’s co-driver Laurin Heinrich – who vaulted from ninth to sixth – couldn’t replicate Saturday’s race-winning pace and soon dropped back behind Morad and then Ye.

Ahead, the two Mercedes-AMGs ran together throughout the opening stint in which Morad again set fastest lap – just as he did yesterday – whilst hassling but never quite challenging Aron. The pair pitted together at the end of the window and emerged as they had entered, albeit with Wang and Cao behind their respective wheels.

Origine pitted on the same lap, but Yuan’s pace was superior to those ahead and it wasn’t long before the Porsche caught them. Third place was, at that stage, enough to win the title, but Yuan made sure by taking the lead from Wang at Turn 12 with 19 minutes remaining.

Lu now ran fourth but couldn’t win the championship without denying his team-mate victory, while Absolute’s Success Penalty had dropped Liu down to ninth. He climbed three places during the stint but ultimately fell short of retaining his crown by three more.

Phantom Global’s Porsche finished fourth after Dorian Boccolacci initially fought Dylan Pereira and Heinrich in the first half-hour before Chia continued the good work by passing Lu at the end of the long back straight on the final lap. The two vanquished championship challengers took the chequered flag right behind and a little ahead of Ruan Cun Fan and Maxime Oosten whose Team KRC BMW finished second in Silver-Am.

Eighth went to the Silver class-winning Ferrari of Liang and Chen who picked up place over the final 30 minutes. VSR’s Lamborghini shared by Bian Ye and Edoardo Liberati was ninth, while Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMG made up 22 spots after starting last to complete the top-10 thanks to Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Mikael Grenier.

Results are HERE