1.8s covers top six at the chequered flag
Class victories for Origine, Absolute and Garage 75
Akash Nandy withstood intense late race pressure to claim his and Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute co-driver James Yu’s first overall Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS victory of the season at Okayama.
Origine Motorsport’s Porsche shared by Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli crossed the line 0.4s behind to claim Silver-Am spoils, while Absolute’s other R8 won the Pro-Am class and finished third overall courtesy of Huang Ruo Han and Markus Winkelhock.
Together, they headed a train of six cars that took the chequered flag within two seconds of each other after Nandy was steadily reeled in during the second stint before a late Full Course Yellow period further bunched the pack. Earlier, Yu converted pole position into an eight-second lead, but had to watch on nervously from the garage while his co-driver successfully negotiated the tense final laps.
Further back, David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo won the Am class in Garage 75’s Ferrari. That was despite the best efforts of AMAC’s Ben Porter who battled Anthony Liu for seventh overall throughout the opening stint.
NANDY RESISTS RAFT OF FACTORY PROS
A race that began in reasonably sedate fashion burst into life once the works pros climbed aboard and closed down the two Silver entries that ran one-two over the first half-hour.
Yu fended off Franky Cheng at the start and edged clear of the FAW Audi as the stint progressed before handing the car over to Nandy in a promising position.
Cheng also gapped Origine’s chasing Porsches respectively driven by Lu Wei and Yuan who reclaimed fourth from Hirobon when his fast-starting Nissan slid wide on lap two. Further back, a collision between Cao Qi and Satoshi Hoshino accounted for Craft-Bamboo’s #30 Mercedes-AMG and the D’station Aston Martin.
Fifth and sixth were occupied by Huang’s Absolute Audi and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim’s Mercedes-AMG, but both cars – as well as Origine’s #87 Porsche – picked up a place at the pitstops thanks to Lu and Bastian Buus’ five-second Success Penalty. The championship-leading Porsche therefore emerged at the tail of a four-car train now featuring Ye, Winkelhock and Luca Stolz who first chased down and passed Cheng’s co-driver Adderly Fong before turning their attentions to Nandy.
They were joined by Edoardo Liberati’s VSR Lamborghini as the clock ticked towards zero. But with the pack running nose-to-tail, Ye became as concerned with keeping Winkelhock behind as he was passing Nandy ahead. The Porsche driver showed his nose on several occasions, most notably when the leaders had to negotiate traffic at Turn 1, but Nandy was having none of it and positioned his car perfectly to rebuff the 911.
He also managed the end of a late FCY period to take the chequered flag at the head of a top six featuring four different manufacturers.
Fong and Cheng finished seventh overall but second in Silver, while Absolute’s Liu and Alessio Picariello – who served a 10-second Success Penalty – lost a little ground in their championship battle with Lu after coming home eighth.
Porsche Center Okazaki and Phantom Pro rounded out the top 10.
Further back, Tjiptobiantoro now has a slim but mathematical chance to wrap up the Am class title on Sunday after he and Colombo beat Zhou Bihuang and Hu Yuqi. AMAC’s Andrew Macpherson and Porter completed the podium.
Race 2 begins at 10:00 JST on Sunday. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and J Sports in Japan.
