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Johor Motorsports Racing’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R picked up its second win of the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season in last weekend’s third round at Buriram, catapulting Prince Jefri Ibrahim into the lead of the standings.
Ibrahim and his co-driver Ben Green, making his second outing of the year in substitution of Alexander Sims, scored a narrow victory in Sunday’s finale after a race-long battle with the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Maxime Ooosten and Ruan Cunfan.
It puts Ibrahim at the head of the drivers’ championship at the halfway mark by six points from KRC duo Oosten and Ruan, who are level on points with Phantom Global Racing Porsche pair Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci.
Victory in Saturday’s opening race went to the No. 45 FAW Audi Sport Asia entry of Frankie Cheng and James Yu following a spectacular last-lap pass by Yu on the Harmony Racing Ferrari of Deng Yi around the outside at the fast Turn 4 left-hander.
The race started off unpromisingly for the Phantom Global-run No. 45 car as Cheng incurred a penalty for jumping the start, but he held second poleman Luo Kailuo, making his first start of the year in the No. 96 Ferrari 296 GT3, as first-corner contact between Liu’s Porsche and the Uno Racing Audi of ‘Rio’ shuffled the pack.
Luo and Cheng would later hand over to their respective co-drivers, Deng and Yu, with a late safety car setting up Yu’s breathtaking pass for the win.
Behind the leading duo, ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella found himself running third in the latter stages, after his teammate Shigekazu Wakisaka had been one of the main beneficiaries of the chaotic start in the LM Corsa Ferrari.
But Fisichella couldn’t hang on to the final place on the podium as he lost places to the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs of Bastian Buus and Patrick Pilet as well as Green in the JMR Corvette, with Buus and Lu Wei taking third in the lead Origine Motorsport entry.
A penalty for Pilet’s Absolute Racing entry promoted Green and Ibrahim to fourth, while Fisichella lost further ground with a penalty of his own, opening the door for No. 46 Audi Sport Asia car Bao Jinlong and Markus Winkelhock to complete the top five.
Sunday’s race was much more straightforward, as polesitter Green led Oosten’s KRC BMW in the first stint, before Ibrahim kept his opposite number Ruan at bay for the remainder of the race, winning by 0.350 seconds.
Climax Racing duo Ralf Aron and Zhou Bihuang picked up their second podium of the season in third place, leading a three-four for Mercedes-AMGs ahead of the Craft-Bamboo Racing example of Cao Qi and Daniel Morad.
Liu and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Boccolacci recovered from ninth on the grid to round out the top five, the best of the Porsche crews.
Origine’s defending champions Leo Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo led the standings heading to Buriram, but retired from the first race with a blocked radiator and could manage no better than 19th in the second race after contact.
Ye and Yuan now sit seven points off championship leader Ibrahim in fourth with three rounds to go.
The GTWC Asia season continues with the first of two rounds in Japan at Fuji Speedway on July 11-13.
RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2
Ibrahim and his co-driver Ben Green, making his second outing of the year in substitution of Alexander Sims, scored a narrow victory in Sunday’s finale after a race-long battle with the Team KRC BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Maxime Ooosten and Ruan Cunfan.
It puts Ibrahim at the head of the drivers’ championship at the halfway mark by six points from KRC duo Oosten and Ruan, who are level on points with Phantom Global Racing Porsche pair Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci.
Victory in Saturday’s opening race went to the No. 45 FAW Audi Sport Asia entry of Frankie Cheng and James Yu following a spectacular last-lap pass by Yu on the Harmony Racing Ferrari of Deng Yi around the outside at the fast Turn 4 left-hander.
The race started off unpromisingly for the Phantom Global-run No. 45 car as Cheng incurred a penalty for jumping the start, but he held second poleman Luo Kailuo, making his first start of the year in the No. 96 Ferrari 296 GT3, as first-corner contact between Liu’s Porsche and the Uno Racing Audi of ‘Rio’ shuffled the pack.
Luo and Cheng would later hand over to their respective co-drivers, Deng and Yu, with a late safety car setting up Yu’s breathtaking pass for the win.
Behind the leading duo, ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella found himself running third in the latter stages, after his teammate Shigekazu Wakisaka had been one of the main beneficiaries of the chaotic start in the LM Corsa Ferrari.
But Fisichella couldn’t hang on to the final place on the podium as he lost places to the Porsche 911 GT3 Rs of Bastian Buus and Patrick Pilet as well as Green in the JMR Corvette, with Buus and Lu Wei taking third in the lead Origine Motorsport entry.
A penalty for Pilet’s Absolute Racing entry promoted Green and Ibrahim to fourth, while Fisichella lost further ground with a penalty of his own, opening the door for No. 46 Audi Sport Asia car Bao Jinlong and Markus Winkelhock to complete the top five.
Sunday’s race was much more straightforward, as polesitter Green led Oosten’s KRC BMW in the first stint, before Ibrahim kept his opposite number Ruan at bay for the remainder of the race, winning by 0.350 seconds.
Climax Racing duo Ralf Aron and Zhou Bihuang picked up their second podium of the season in third place, leading a three-four for Mercedes-AMGs ahead of the Craft-Bamboo Racing example of Cao Qi and Daniel Morad.
Liu and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Boccolacci recovered from ninth on the grid to round out the top five, the best of the Porsche crews.
Origine’s defending champions Leo Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo led the standings heading to Buriram, but retired from the first race with a blocked radiator and could manage no better than 19th in the second race after contact.
Ye and Yuan now sit seven points off championship leader Ibrahim in fourth with three rounds to go.
The GTWC Asia season continues with the first of two rounds in Japan at Fuji Speedway on July 11-13.
RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2