Fuji Race 1: Yuan and Ye lead Origine one-two

Reigning champions Bob Yuan and Leo Ye bounced back from a tough outing in Thailand to claim their third GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS victory of the season and return to the top of the drivers' standings in Race 1 at Fuji.

The Chinese duo led home Origine team-mates Lu Wei and Alessio Picariello who made up several places and overcame a five-second penalty in the second stint. JMR's #66 Corvette shared by Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Jordan Love completed the overall podium two seconds further back.

Fourth overall went to Silver class winners Yu Kuai and Cheng Congfu (FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom) who benefitted from Harmony's late puncture, while Absolute Corse's five-second time penalty at the chequered flag elevated 5ZIGEN's Nissan of Hirobon and Yu Kanamaru to sixth and Silver-Am victory.

There was also a late change in Am thanks to LM Corsa's penultimate lap retirement. Instead, EBM's Mercedes-AMG of Setiawan Santoso and Andrew Bentley scored their second win of the season together.

ORIGINE BOUNCES BACK

Harmony’s qualifying pace suggested it would mount a serious challenge, and so it proved early on when Luo Kailuo fended off fellow front row starter Cheng into Turn 1. The same couldn’t be said for the sister 296, however, when contact with Absolute’s Porsche sent Liu Hangcheng and debutant Changwoo Lee spearing into the barriers between turns two and three.

The resulting Safety Car period ended 18 minutes before the pit window opened, not enough time as it turned out for Luo and Cheng to negate the extra seven seconds served by all Silver entries. Both of their cars rejoined behind Origine’s #87 911 GT3 R, which now had Ye onboard.

The reigning champion stretched his two-second lead to more than 10 over the following laps whilst, behind, Harmony’s Andy Deng and FAW/Phantom’s Yu came under pressure from Picariello.

Origine’s second Porsche ran 10th in Wei’s hands before the pitstops but benefitted hugely from several cars serving extra Silver or success penalty time during the driver changes, or – in the case of Phantom’s Anthony Liu – a drive-through for a track limits infringement. Picariello therefore emerged in fifth before passing Love off track, for which he collected an in-race five-second penalty to be applied at the chequered flag.

That decision was partially based on the Belgian also swiftly dispatching both Yu and Deng in quick succession. Handing back fourth to Love was no longer a realistic possibility. Instead, Picariello set about building a five-second cushion back to the Corvette, which also passed the Ferrari and Audi. Seven seconds separated them at the finish.

Harmony’s hopes of a class victory were dashed by a front right puncture eight minutes from the flag. Yu and Cheng therefore scored a fourth Silver win of the campaign to extend their lead over Deng.

Absolute’s Porsche shared by Wang Zhongwei and Patrick Pilet powered its way from 16th through to fifth overall thanks to a fast, error-free performance and no success penalty, while Hirobon and Kanamaru took advantage of Huang and Akash Nandy’s five-second penalty at the flag to bag sixth overall and maximum Silver-Am points.

But three of this year’s major championship contenders endured a tough time results wise. 15 and 10-second success penalties for finishing one-two in Thailand restricted JMR’s #99 Corvette shared by Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Ben Green, and Ruan Cun Fan and Maxime Oosten (Team KRC) to eighth and 11th respectively, while Phantom’s Liu and Dorian Boccolacci retired their Porsche following a second penalty for a short pitstop.

Full results are HERE