> Ferrari triumphs from Nissan and Lamborghini
> Phantom Global, Craft-Bamboo and Climax take class wins
> Beijing Race 1 Result
Harmony Racing and Ferrari won their second successive race on the streets of Beijing, albeit 12 months apart, after Liu Kaishun and series debutant Takuro Shinohara converted pole position into a straitforward victory in the first of this weekend’s two hour-long contests.
The Chinese-Japanese combination picked up where Ye Yifei and Zhang Yaqi left off last season by beating 5ZIGEN’s Nissan shared by Takayuki Aoki and Atsushi Miyake by one second. Akash Nandy and Sandy Stuvik (Absolute Racing) completed an overall podium solely comprising Silver pairings.
A fourth would have joined them had championship contenders Yu Kuai and Cheng Congfu not been penalised for a Full Course Yellow speeding infringement that cost FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s R8 second place after the pitstops. The window coincided with a caution period triggered by points’ leader Lu Wei looping his Origine Porsche on cold tyres immediately after the initial FCY ended.
His and FAW’s loss was Anthony Liu’s gain. The Phantom Porsche driver is now 10 points behind Lu after finishing fourth overall and winning Pro-Am alongside Ayhancan Güven who withstood pressure from Alessandro Ghiretti during the second stint.
Craft-Bamboo’s Silver-Am winners Dean Chen and Alex Liang were sixth overall in their Mercedes-AMG, while Setiawan Santoso and Zhou Bi Huang (Climax) won the Am class for the third time in four events.
MAN AND MACHINE IN PERFECT HARMONY
Starting from pole and without a success penalty to serve made Harmony’s #96 Ferrari a heavy favourite for victory. And so it proved, with neither Shinohara or Liu ever coming under serious pressure.
The latter judged his start perfectly to lead Cheng into Turn 1 before scampering clear by around two seconds. But progress was checked by two caution periods, the first a short FCY intervention to clear Andres Pato’s Audi from the first corner’s tyre wall and the second for when Lu spun his Porsche on cold tyres just as the track went green. Clouting the wall necessitated a recovery and long FCY/Safety Car requirement that straddled the subsequent pit window.
As such, the leading order remained unchanged when racing resumed after the driver changes. Miyake immediately jumped Nandy to run third, which then became second when the Audi ahead was penalised for speeding under FCY conditions.
Behind, Nandy initially weathered Güven’s challenge before pulling clear of the squabbling Porsches to complete the podium. Ghiretti almost found a way past through Turn 1 in the closing stages but had to yield as the track approached Turn 3’s right hander. Six tenths separated them at the finish.
KRC’s BMW picked up the same penalty as FAW/Phantom’s Audi, which in turn helped Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG complete the top six. The result also maintained Liang’s run of class wins at his home event after twice claiming Silver honours last year.
He was chased all the way by Climax Racing’s Mercedes-AMG shared by class rivals Li Lichao and Elias Seppanen as well as Song Jiajun and Brendon Leitch in Harmony’s other Ferrari. Brian Lee and Maxime Oosten (GTO with KRC) were ninth, while Porsche Center Okazaki’s Hiroaki Nagai and Kazuto Kotaka made up eight places on their way to completing the top 10.
Beijing’s second race begins at 13:00 CST (GMT +8) on Sunday. There’s live coverage on GT World’s YouTube channel as well as CCTV5 across China.
