Porsche Teams Sweep Opening Weekend at Sepang

Porsche teams took a clean sweep of victories as the new GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS kicked off last weekend at Sepang in Malaysia.

Honors were divided across Absolute Racing and Origine Motorsport across the two races, as reigning Porsche Supercup champion Alessandro Ghiretti won on debut in the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo he shares with Huang Ruohan on Saturday, before Origine duo Lu Wei and Alessio Picariello triumphed on Sunday.

Starting third, Ghiretti and Huang had to overcome the Absolute Corse Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 piloted solo by Akash Nandy, who led the early stages.

However, a full-course yellow triggered by Deng Yi’s Harmony Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 stopping on-track was one factor that denied Nandy the advantage he needed to overcome the added three-second pit stop penalty for all Silver class runners, as well as the undercut effect as Ghiretti took over from Huang.

Once out in front, Ghiretti was never headed, winning by 6.856 seconds from Nandy, whose attention turned towards preserving his class lead in the face of opposition from the Phantom Global Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai.

Nandy successfully hung on to the place by less than a second from Yu, while Nissan SUPER GT star Atsushi Miyake finished a further two seconds back in another Silver class entry, the 5ZIGEN GT-R NISMO GT3 he shared with Takayuki Aoki.

Two more Porsches completed the top six, the Phantom Global car of Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci and the No. 4 Origine machine of Lu and Picariello.

Starting second for Sunday’s race, Picariello took control early on as polesitter Bastian Buus in the No. 918 Absolute Porsche made a poor getaway from pole, allowing Ghiretti into second ahead of Miyake and Boccolacci.

A 15-second success penalty for the No. 911 Absolute car as Ghiretti handed over to Ruohan meant the way was clear for Lu to emerge in front after taking over the Origine Porsche from Picariello, as Liu jumped to second in the pit stop phase.

Liu was able to reduce what had been a 10-second deficit to 4.072 seconds at the finish, but was powerless to stop Lu from claiming a record-setting seventh GTWC Asia win to move one clear of last year’s title-winners Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli.

The battle for third was fought between Ruan Cunfan aboard the best of the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVOs and Ruohan, who was able to pass his rival on the final lap.

Behind, contact between Aoki in the 5ZIGEN Nissan and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak in the pole-sitting Absolute Porsche allowed KRC to get both its cars in the top five, as the car shared by Brian Lee and Maxime Oosten moved up to fifth.

Best of the Silver runners was the Harmony Ferrari of Deng Yi and Liu Kaishun in sixth.

Ghiretti and Ruohan lead the championship by seven points from Lu and Picariello, while Liu and Boccolacci sit third, 12 points away from the top spot.

The next round of the GTWC Asia season takes place at the Mandalika Circuit in Indonesia on May 2-3.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2