Harmony’s Deng and Luo score maiden victories at Okayama

Deng Yi and Luo Kailuo converted pole position into maiden GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS victories at Okayama where a low scoring race for both leading title contenders ensured the destination of this year’s drivers’ crown will remain undecided until Beijing.

Winhere Harmony’s #96 Ferrari initially stood firm on the run to Turn 1 where contact further back ended the hopes of the team’s sister machine and triggered an early Safety Car period. Deng then scampered clear at the restart before building a gap sufficiently large to overcome the Silver duo’s extra five seconds in the pits. His co-driver Luo was never challenged thereafter en route to a seven-second victory over two Pro-Am Porsches shared by Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci (Phantom Global Racing) and Lu Wei and Bastian Buus (Origine Motorsport).

Team KRC’s Ruan CunFan and Maxime Oosten would have taken another significant step towards winning the Silver-Am title with class victory and fourth overall. However, Oosten’s pass on Yu Kanamaru halfway through the second stint counted for little post-race when a penalty for contact on lap one dropped the BMW down the order and promoted 5ZIGEN to class top spot.

Further back, Ferrari collected its second win of the day courtesy of Am duo Shigekazu Wakisaka and Kei Nakanishi despite the latter being spun around early in the race.

Win here? Ok!

After coming close several times before this was a reasonably straightforward race and victory for the #96 crew, which had earlier clinched their third pole position in as many Q1 attempts.

This time, however, it was Deng who qualified first and took the start. He and Luo never looked back.

Their only brief concern came immediately after the pitstops when Boccolacci initially reduced the lead to just under three seconds. Deng’s speed ensured that was soon back out to more than four and eventually extended to seven as the pursuing Frenchman’s attention turned to keeping Buus at bay.

The 911s pitted from fifth and sixth but were each gifted three places by Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s #45 R8, Origine’s championship leaders, and the 5ZIGEN Nissan. The latter also appeared primed to take advantage of the Audi and Porsche’s extended pit times before stopping a lap later than those around it. The offset between Hirobon – an Am – and the Pros who jumped aboard ultimately dropped the GT-R to fourth.

That became fifth soon after when Oosten passed both the Audi and Nissan in quick succession. The second manoeuvre – completed three corners from where it began – was more than worthy of the class victory it appeared to secure even before the BMW pulled comfortably clear before the finish. But its post-race drive-through penalty converted to 32 seconds for causing a collision with Absolute Corse’s #29 Lamborghini on lap one demoted Oosten and Ruan to 12th overall and fourth in class.

Yu Kuai and Cheng Congfu – who completed the opening stint in second – secured Silver victory in fifth, while Bob Yuan and Leo Ye again limited the damage of a hefty success penalty to complete the top six.

Their hopes of retaining the crown were helped by a tough day for rivals JMR. Although fast in Q2, both of the team’s Corvettes started Race 1 from lowly grid positions – a factor that contributed towards losing places in the Turn 1 accident that also compromised the #55 Ferrari and #46 Audi. But despite finishing 17th, and regardless of what happens in Race 2, Jefri Ibrahim will head to Beijing with a chance of winning the overall championship.

Craft-Bamboo’s Cao Qi and Jayden Ojeda moved up three places from where they started to finish as the best placed Mercedes-AMG in seventh, while Uno Racing’s Rio and Shaun Thong completed the top eight.

The GT3 Am title could have been clinched this weekend, but that’s no longer possible after Ben Porter finished ahead of Garage 75’s David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo. AMAC’s Porsche was third in class behind EBM’s Setiawan Santoso and Martin Berry, and winners Nakanishi/Wakisaka.

Results are HERE