> Team Studie make perfect start to potential GT4 title-winning weekend
> Yeongam Result: Free Practice 1
Craft-Bamboo Racing supersub Maxi Goetz wasted no time reacquainting himself with Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia by topping a scorching hot opening practice session at Korea International Circuit today.
The German claimed victory at Suzuka during his only previous championship appearance in 2017, and was immediately on the pace again at Yeongam where his best of 2m10.820s was 0.143s faster than local hero MG Choi.
Yeongam makes its first-ever championship appearance this weekend, so it was no surprise to see top spot swap places on numerous occasions as teams and drivers acquainted themselves with the former F1 venue.
Choi and his Solite Indigo Racing squad are one of the few drivers and teams to have previously raced here. And it was the Korean combination that set the pace on three separate occasions before Goetz finally settled the matter in Craft-Bamboo’s favour.
Absolute Racing’s Fuji-winning Audi shared by Weiron Tan and Martin Rump finished 0.2s behind Goetz and another tenth clear of HubAuto Corsa’s Ferrari which, like Absolute and Indigo, remains in championship contention with two rounds remaining.
Indeed, the only title protagonist not to feature in the top-four, or indeed the top-10, was Absolute’s #911 Porsche driven by points’ leaders Tanart Sathienthirakul and Philip Hamprecht who finished 1.7s off the pace in 12th overall.
Absolute’s other Audi and Porsche completed the top-six ahead of Triple Eight’s Mercedes-AMG and Craft-Bamboo’s #99 Mercedes-AMG.
In GT4, BMW Team Studie’s Sunako Jukuchou and Takayuki Kinoshita made the ideal start to what they will hope is a championship-clinching weekend by beating their only title rivals by 0.8s. Jukuchou’s best of 2m33.200 was enough to see off Team iRace.Win’s Mercedes-AMG duo headed by Alan Yeo and Joe Chi.
The day’s second practice session begins at 15:55 KST (GMT +9).