Lamborghini Scores First Win Since 2018 at Okayama

Lamborghini ended a Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS victory drought dating back to 2018 as VSR pair Edoardo Liberati and Ye Bian won during last weekend’s penultimate round of the season at Okayama International Circuit.

Liberati and Ye triumphed in a rain-affected second race of the weekend on Sunday at the circuit formerly known as TI Aida, while Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute pair Akash Nandy and James Yu came out on top in Saturday’s opener.

Timing the change from slicks to wet tires proved critical to the No. 6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2’s win, with the rain arriving before the start of the mandatory pit window and effectively forcing teams into making an extra stop.

Liberati, who leapt from fourth to seize the lead at Turn 1, maintained the advantage after changing to wets ahead of Luca Stolz’s Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

That was how the order remained when the top two handed over to respective co-drivers Ye and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim, with Ye leading home Ibrahim by 5.984 seconds.

A tight battle for third between two Porsche crews was settled in favor of the No. 13 Phantom Global Racing car of Dorian Boccolacci and Xie An, both drivers making their first appearance of the season at Okayama.

Boccolacci had been the star of the opening stages on a damp track before losing time changing to wet tires, which required him to fight his way back up from sixth to third, the Frenchman passing Bastian Buus’s No. 4 Origine Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R for the provisional final spot on the podium before handing over to An.

Championship leader Lu Wei pressured An in the fight for third after taking over the Origine car from Buus, but lost out by just two tenths of a second.

The opening race on Saturday took place in dry conditions, with the No. 41 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II shared by Nandy and Yu converting pole into victory.

Yu built an eight-second gap over Franky Cheng’s Phantom Global-run FAW Audi Sport entry in the opening stint before handing over to Nandy, whose lead was gradually eroded as a train of cars fighting for second caught up to the Malaysian.

Cheng’s co-driver Adderly Fong couldn’t hang on to second and was swallowed up by Leo Ye Hongli’s No. 87 Origine Porsche, Markus Winkelhock’s No. 40 Absolute Audi, Luca Stolz in the Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG and Buus in the second Origine car.

In the end, Nandy held on by four tenths from the Porsche Ye shares with Bo Yuan, with Winkelhock and Huang Rouhan completing the podium.

The top six were all split by two seconds, with Fong surrendering a further place to Liberati’s VSR Lamborghini to drop to seventh.

With another pair of top-five finishes at Okayama, Lu continues to lead the overall drivers’ standings, with his nearest rivals now being fellow Origine drivers Ye and Yuan, 16 points back after finishing 10th in the second race.

Anthony Liu and Alessio Picariello had a weekend to forget in their Absolute Racing Porsche, finishing eighth in the opener and 17th in Race 2, leaving them 19 points behind Lu with just two races to go.

Ye and Yuan secured the Silver-Am title having amassed an unassailable points lead over ‘Hirobon’ and Yu Kanamaru in the 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

The final round of the Fanatec GT Asia season will be held at China’s Shanghai International Circuit on September 13-15.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2