- Charlie Thornton
- Sep 18, 2024
- 8 min read
GT World Challenge Asia - Round 6 - Shanghai Weekend Report
GT World Challenge Asia returned to the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time since 2019, and hosted the final two rounds of the championship, with six title contenders.
ENTRY LIST BOOSTED
Thirty-two cars were on the entry list for the season finale at Shanghai this weekend, with four new or returning entries joining the grid.
Elegant Racing Team, who participated at the opening round at Sepang, Malaysia, as well as the Fuji round in June returned with solo driver Liu Lic Ka, running a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the Am class.
Additional guest entries from Phantom Global Racing, Harmony Racing and EBM featured in the line up, and these were not eligible for championship points. Hu Bo and Dylan Pereira piloted the Pro-Am #2 Phantom Global Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, Liu Hangcheng and Luo Kailuo would drive the #99 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, while Lu Wenlong and Li Xuanyu appear in the #321 EBM Porsche 992 GT3.
Japanese teams decided to not make the trip to Shanghai, which marks the return to China for the first time since 2019. These included the #25 Porsche Center Okazaki Porsche, the #60 LM Corsa Ferrari and the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin. The reason for D’Station missing the round was due to their commitment to the FIA World Endurance Championship visit to Fuji Speedway.
Multiple drivers made a return to the series, participating as factory support for the likes of Audi, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. Laurin Heinrich returned to the wheel of the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche, who raced for the team at the opening round at Sepang, as well as the Suzuka round in July. Markus Winkelhock received a new teammate for the #40 Absolute Racing Audi, in the form of Antares Au. This was however changed as Winkelhock started feeling sick, and decided to withdraw, meaning Au would compete solo in the Am class.
Craft-Bamboo Racing filled in their professional seats with Daniel Morad and Maximilian Götz in the #30 and #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s respectively. Morad competed at the Sepang and Suzuka rounds, while Götz participated at Buriram, Thailand. In other Mercedes-AMG seats, Mikaël Grenier returned to Triple Eight JMR.
QUALIFYING
Thirty-two cars headed out on track for the final qualifying session of the 2024 season, and with barely a couple minutes completed in qualifying one, the #99 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Liu Hangcheng caused a red flag after stopping on the track for too long. The session was resumed just seven minutes later but would not run to full length as with just seven minutes left on the clock the #93 Phantom Global Racing Porsche 992 GT3 of Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak caused a second red flag of the session, also due to stopping on track.
A lengthy red flag period ensued, and lasted for seventeen minutes. The session was resumed with just five minutes left, but met the same fate as the previous two times, where the #99 Harmony Racing Ferrari struck again causing the third and final red flag of qualifying one. Extra time was added to the clock once the qualifying was green, which allowed all the cars to set faster lap times. Chen Weian in the #77 Harmony Racing Ferrari set the fastest lap time of the session with a 2:00.908, and would see them in pole position for race one later that day.
Qualifying two started, and lap times started rolling in from the professional drivers, really jumbling up the order. However, with three minutes of the session to go, the #44 Vollgas-Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 of Kim Jaehyun caused the only red flag of qualifying two, and the session would not resume after the previous interventions in qualifying one.
Ralf Aron in the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo would set the fastest lap time with a 2:00.285, claiming pole position for the Sunday race, with Finn Gehrsitz in the #296 Absolute Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 closely behind, and the #30 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Daniel Morad in third. Less than half a second separated the top three qualifiers, and the top twelve were within a second of pole position.
RACE 1
The championship leader coming into the final two races of the 2024 GT World Challenge Asia series led by 16 points, and with Lu Wei in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 R starting race one in seventh position, the battle would certainly lead onto the final race on Sunday.
James Yu Kuai in the #41 Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute led the field away, with Franky Cheng Congfu in the #36 FAW Audi Sport Asia Racing Team following behind, while the pole position sitting #77 Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Chen Weian dropped a couple of positions. Meanwhile, as the lights went out, Wang Zhongwei in the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was spun around on the start finish straight by the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche 992 GT3 of Chris Chia, the Mercedes could not continue, and was retired shortly before the Porsche. A safety car was called in order to clear up the debris on the start finish straight, and once the clean up was complete, two of the Mercedes’ went into the gravel at the final turn, however the race continued.
Unfortunately on lap three, the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo came into the pits and retired from the race, due to unknown reasons. Meanwhile at the final corner, the #88 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jeffrey Lee made contact with the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche 992 GT3 of Eshan Pieris, which resulted in the Porsche sustaining significant bodywork damage, however Pieris continued and finished the race.
On lap eight, Andre Canard in the #296 Absolute Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 made a dive on the inside of Lu Wei in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 at turn one, which sent both cars out of the race. Importantly, this retirement for the #4 Porsche would really hurt their championship contention heading into race two on Sunday.
With thirty-five minutes of the race to go, the pit window opened, where most of the amateur drivers would come in to hand over to their professional drivers for the remainder of the race. Chen Weian in the Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 stayed on track until the last possible moment, and when he did finally come into the pits, his teammate Liang Jiatong came out still in the lead of the race. This lead was shortly lost to Akash Nandy in the #41 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which had led the race in the early moments. The momentum for the Ferrari was quickly lost when he was overtaken by Alessio Picariello as well as Adderly Fong, meaning the Ferrari lost three positions in one lap. Daniel Bilski in the #63 VSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 spun at the final corner, and beached himself in the gravel, which caused the race to be neutralised with a full course yellow.
In the closing minutes of the race, Alessio Picariello got past Akash Nandy, taking the lead with just over three minutes to go. Joel Eriksson in the #93 AAS Phantom Global Racing Porsche 992 GT3 made up an astonishing twenty-three places during the race, finishing in eighth. David Tijiptobiantoro in the #75 Garage 75 Ferrari 296 GT3 claimed the AM championship with one more race to go, however the overall championship was split by just six points heading to the final race.
RACE 2
An unusual clean start for race two saw Ralf Aron lead in the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which did not finish a single lap in the previous race. Alessio Picariello sat in second, followed by Daniel Morad in third.
Just a few minutes into the race, the final points paying positions were being fought hard by Yu Kanamaru in the #500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan GTR and Maxime Oosten in the #89 Team KRC BMW M4 GT3. The BMW would eventually make its way past on the back straight into the penultimate corner, which was later followed by Daniel Morad making a move on Picariello at the same corner for P2 overall.
When the pit window opened, the majority of the Pro-Am cars stayed on track, utilising the professional drivers’ to their best abilities, especially when championship titles were up for grabs at the end of the race. The professionals came into the pits with less than a minute remaining on the pit window, and handed over to their teammates to seal the deal. The two leading Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo’s of #22 Climax Racing and #30 Craft-Bamboo Racing came into the pits, and eventually out of the pits line-astern, where as some cars had gained and lost positions through the pit cycle, including the #88 Craft-Bamboo Racing car of Jeffrey Lee jumping up to fourth position. Championship hopeful Lu Wei in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche jumped from eighth to fifth from the pit stops, however this would not be enough for them to win the championship without making up even more positions in the final twenty-five minutes.
Bob Yuan in the #87 Origine Motorsport Porsche made it upto second, after coming out of the pit cycle in third, and started to put the pressure on Wang Zhonhgwei in the #22 Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG. Yuan would eventually get past Wang a lap later, taking the lead of the race, as well as the lead of the championship.
As the timer counted down, and the chequered flag was shown, Bob Yuan came across the finish line to take the win of the final GT World Challenge Asia race at Shanghai International Circuit. This would also make him and his teammate, Leo Ye Hongli the overall 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS champions. Yuan and Hongli would win by just seven points to Anthony Liu and Alessio Picariello. Unfortunate for Lu Wei who would miss out on the championship by eleven points.
A NEW CHAMPION
Bob Yuan and Leo Ye Hongli claim their first championship in the GT World Challenge Asia series. Since Yuan and Hongli are in the Silver-Am class, they also claim the championship in class too.
In the Silver class, Franky Cheng Confu and Adderly Fong claim their championship by just nineteen points, all while winning four out of twelve races this season. Pro-Am honours fell to Anthony Liu and Alessio Picariello, winning by twelve points over Lu Wei.
Origine Motorsport were crowned teams’ champions after an incredibly dominant season, winning by one hundred and four points to Absolute Racing.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2025
The 2025 Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia season is bound to be as, if not more interesting and exciting as the 2024 season. The 2025 season calendar was announced earlier this year at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa press conference at the end of June, and features new tracks joining the high quality circuits already present.
GT World Challenge Asia will make its debut at the Mandalika International Street Circuit in Indonesia, however the series has sacrificed the rounds at Japanese circuits Suzuka and Sugo.
Round 1: Sepang International Circuit - Malaysia, 11th - 13th April 2025
Round 2: Mandalika International Street Circuit - Indonesia, 9th - 11th May 2025
Round 3: Chang International Circuit - Thailand, 30th May - 1st June 2025
Round 4: Fuji Speedway - Japan, 11th - 13th July 2025
Round 5: Okayama International Circuit - Japan, 29th - 31st August 2025
Round 6: Beijing Street Circuit - China, 17th - 19th October 2025
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