Ye, Yuan Claim Title on Countback After Beijing Finale

Origine Motorsport Porsche drivers Leo Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo were crowned back-to-back GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS champions after ending up tied on points with team stablemate Lu Wei after last weekend’s Beijing season finale.

Six points for a seventh-place finish in the weekend’s second race were enough for the No. 87 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Ye and Yuan to emerge on top of a seven-way title decider, as both Origine cars ended up tied on 125 points apiece.

Three wins during the season tipped the balance in favor of Ye and Yuan over Lu, who took a sixth-place finish in the opening race and then fourth place in the finale in the No. 4 Porsche that he shared with Bastian Buus.

JMR Corvette driver Prince Jefri Ibrahim ended up third in the standings with a second-place finish in the final race of the season, three points shy of Ye and Yuan.

The title fight was narrowed from seven crews to four in the opening race on Sunday morning, as Team 5ZIGEN drivers Yu Kanamaru and ‘Hirobon’ scored their first overall win of the season in their No. 500 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

Kanamaru and ‘Hirobon’ won from seventh on the grid in a chaotic race punctuated by two safety car periods, the first caused by a crash for the Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Cao Qi and the second by an incident involving Anthony Liu’s Phantom Global Racing Porsche and the pole-sitting Harmony Racing Ferrari of Deng Yi.

The second incident meant the pit window was open under caution, prompting almost the entire field to pit, and Ye and Yuan could have wrapped up the championship with a race to spare as the No. 87 Origine Porsche had moved up to fourth.

However, both the points-leading car and the JMR Corvette of Prince Jefri and Ben Green were penalized for making pit stops faster than the permitted minimum.

A similar penalty for the surviving Harmony Ferrari in which Ferrari Hypercar star Yifei Ye was at the wheel for the closing stages and the No. 4 Origine Porsche’s 15-second success penalty for its Okayama win further smoothed Kanamaru’s path to the front of the field, although he had to hold off Nico Menzel’s GTO Porsche in the closing stages.

Kanamaru and Menzel were split by just 0.280 seconds at the finish, with Maxime Oosten completing the top three in the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO started by Ruan Cunfan — the pair securing the Silver-Am Cup title as a result.

Victory in the final race went to the No. 55 Ferrari 296 GT3 shared by Ye and Zhang Yaqi, which ran second early on but was promoted into the lead when the Phantom Global Porsche suffered a slow pit stop as Dorian Boccolacci handed over from Liu.

A heavy Turn 1 crash for Liu meant the race would finish under caution, as Prince Jefri and Green finished second in their No. 99 JMR Corvette ahead of the Phantom-run No. 46 Audi Sport Asia entry of series returnee Joel Eriksson and Bao Jinlong.

Despite failing to finish in the overall top ten in either race, the sister No. 45 FAW Audi of Franky Cheng and Yu Kuai claimed Silver honors, while Christian Colombo and David Tjiptobiantoro took the Am crown in their Garage 75 Ferrari.

GTWC Asia claimed a spectator attendance of 30,000 for its first event on the streets of Beijing, the championship’s largest ever crowd figure.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2