GT World Challenge Asia - Round 1 - Prince Jefri Ibrahim's emotional home win at Sepang

The opening round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Asia delivers Origine's win to defend their title, and Corvette's first win since 2023.

QUALIFYING

Green flag waved at the end of the pitlane as the two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s from the brand new Johor Motorsports Racing team led the field for the start of qualifying one. Frankie Cheng in the #45 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II set the early pace with a 2:04.301 as Wei Lu went second fastest in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 but was quickly beaten by sister the #87 Porsche of Bo Yuan. With just a few minutes of the session to go, Brian Lee in the #10 GTO Racing Team Porsche spun at turn twelve but continued with no visible damage before pitting. In the meantime, Shaun Thong in the #16 Uno Racing Team Audi improved to second place to make it an Audi front-row lockout, but another spin saw  Bao Jinlong in the #46 Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom R8 on the exit of Sunway Lagoon Corner. However, no one could come close to Cheng’s time as the Audi driver took pole position for race one, while Pro-Am pole position went the way of reigning champion Yuan. 

Qualifying two got underway as times came in thick and fast with the Pro drivers onboard the cars. Alexander Sims in the #99 Johor Motorsports Racing Chevrolet went top of the time early on with a 2:03.777 despite being briefly held up by sister #66 Corvette of Jordan Love at the final corner. Maxime Oosten bettered that with a 2:03.564 in the #89 Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 Evo. With five minutes left of the session, Ralf Aron delivered a 2:03.440 to put the #2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on provisional pole position, with the Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific driver Dorian Boccolacci in the #37 Phantom Global Racing Porsche just within a tenth of the Estonian, eventually seeing Aron take his second consecutive pole position in GT world Challenge Asia.

RACE 1

The race got underway in humid conditions, typical for Malaysia, and we saw Frankie Cheng get a good start from pole position, leading the field away into turn one. Unfortunately, a nightmare first lap for Shaun Thong saw him get shuffled back into fourth position before turn one, before spinning the car on the exit of turn two, collecting two Porsche’s of Kerong Li and Adrian D’Silva in the #86 Origine Motorsport and #61 Earl Bamber Motorsport entries respectively, as well as the debuting #66 Johor Motorsports Racing Corvette Z06, who got moving again quickly. Thong’s #16 Audi received major damage, and ultimately parked his car on the exit of the support pitlane, and retired. Similarly, after contact at turn two, a rear-right puncture for Wei Lu in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche forced another retirement, seeing the car limp back to the pits. However, the drama on lap one didn’t stop just yet, with the #2 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo suffering from suspension damage, and was stranded at turn ten, this caused the safety car to be deployed.

As the safety car returned to the pits with forty-two minutes remaining, Cheng led the restart and quickly built a gap to Bo Yuan in second position. Bao Jinlong spun the #46 Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry on the exit of Sunway Lagoon Corner after contact with the #31 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes of Qi Cao, in which they were dealt with a drive-through penalty for the incident. Meanwhile, the pit window opened, and the majority of the amateur drivers dived for the pitlane immediately to hand their cars over to their professional teammates. Cheng, the race leader, opted to stay out an extra lap, and then handed the #45 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry to his teammate James Yu. Due to an additional eight seconds of silver compensation time, Yu came out of the pits in third position behind Leo Ye in the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche and Dorian Boccolacci in the #37 Phantom Global Racing Porsche.

An exciting battle for third position in the Silver-Am class resulted in contact between Adderly Fong and Kang Ling in the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche and #44 Climax Racing Mercedes, with the Porsche losing two positions in the process. With just fifteen minutes remaining, Maxime Oosten in the #89 Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 Evo overtook James Yu in the #45 Audi for third position overall, while a couple laps later, Alexander Sims in the #99 JMR Corvette also overtook Yu with a late dive up the inside of the final corner.

In the closing minutes, at the front, Leo Ye never looked back, and took the overall and Pro-Am victory for the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche with his teammate Bo Yuan, eight seconds ahead of the #37 Phantom Global Racing Porsche of Boccolacci and Liu. Silver-Am victory went the way of #89 Team KRC BMW of Maxime Oosten and Cunfan Ruan, who finished third overall, with the second place #29 Absolute Corse Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Ron Huang and Akash Nandy in class only in seventh overall. James Yu brought the #45 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom Audi home in fifth overall but took silver class victory alongside teammate Frankie Cheng. Despite missing his teammate Andrew Macpherson, William Ben Porter took a superb AM class victory in the #51 AMAC Motorsport Porsche 991.2, finishing ninth overall.

RACE 2

Second race of the weekend got underway with Ralf Aron in the pole-sitting #2 Climax Racing Mercedes led the grid into turn one, with Maxime Oosten in the #89 Team KRC BMW M4 going side-by-side with Dorian Boccolacci in the #37 Phantom Global Racing Porsche throughout the entire opening sector. The BMW eventually got past the Porsche with a clean move around the outside of turn four for second place, with the #99 JMR Corvette of Alexander Sims pushing the Porsche through the second sector, and the battle extended for several laps throughout the first stint between the two. Bad news came for the #37 Porsche, given a five-second time penalty for a race start infringement, but the race started to settle down as the top two of Aron and Oosten pulled away from the pack.

Once the pit window opened, we saw only Silver entries come into the pits at the start, while the leaders all pitted at the latest possible opportunity before the pit window closed, except for Boccolacci in the #37 Porsche, who pitted a lap earlier. Meanwhile, as the pit window was open, disaster struck for Jordan Love in the #66 JMR Corvette, as he is seen dragging the car back into the pitlane with major left-rear damage after contact with the stricken #98 Absolute Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Anderson Tanoto who spun on his own at turn thirteen. A full course yellow was deployed in order to retrieve the Ferrari, and clear up any debris on the track. The full course yellow was then upgraded to a safety car, and on the restart, Bihuang Zhou in the #2 Climax Racing Mercedes led the field away once again with fourteen minutes to go. 

Wei Lu moved up to second place with a committed dive on the inside of Prince Jefri Ibrahim at turn nine, while Hangcheng Liu spun his #55 Harmony Racing Ferrari at the final corner from second position in the Silver-Am class, and Qi Cao in the #31 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes overtook Cunfan Ruan in the #89 Team KRC BMW for fourth position overall at turn one

Disaster struck for the race leading Mercedes of Zhou, who was tagged by the #4 Porsche of Lu at turn two, Lu subsequently led the race, but was given a drive-through penalty for causing the collision, and served the penalty promptly, dropping the car down the order. Zhou managed to get the Mercedes going again, but the damage was already done, and he had lost multiple important positions in the process. The race went from bad to worse for the #2 Climax Racing Mercedes as Zhou tagged the #500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan at turn two as the Chinese driver was desperate to make up the lost positions. 

Out in front, Prince Jefri Ibrahim took the lead in the #99 JMR Corvette after Lu’s penalty, and took an emotional home win alongside teammate Alexander Sims. Frankie Cheng charged from fifteenth to third overall after the safety car restart and took Silver class victory alongside teammate James Yu, while the  #89 Team KRC BMW once again dominated Silver-Am class thanks to a brilliant first stint by Maxime Oosten and Cunfan Ruan who brought the car across the line. Am class honour went the way of reigning Am Cup champion #75 Garage 75 Ferrari of David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo. 

ANTICIPATION BUILDS FOR MANDALIKA

Round two of the GT World Challenge Asia heads to the Mandalika International Street Circuit in Indonesia for the first time on May 9th - 11th. #99 Johor Motorsports Racing Chevrolet leads overall standings, but is tied with the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche in the Pro-Am Cup standings. Double class victories for the #45 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom Audi means it leads the Silver Cup standings by a comfortable margin. A similar story in the Silver-Am Cup as the #89 Team KRC BMW has a commanding lead after double wins, while a tight margin in the Am cup sees the #75 Garage 75 Ferrari lead by just three points over William Ben Porter in the #51 AMAC Motorsport Porsche.

Images © SRO Motorsports Group