Result: FP1
KCMG by Champion Racing’s Martin Rump posted the fastest time in this morning’s opening practice session for this weekend’s Blancpain GT Series Asia round at Suzuka, while Taiwan Top Speed paced the GT4 class.
Audi R8 LMS GT3s finished one-two in the sunny 50-minute session, with Rump’s best of 2m03.622s - set before the halfway mark - enough to beat J-Fly by Absolute Racing’s Alessio Picariello by 0.151s.
Local Super Taikyu team ARN Racing, who have entered both of Blancpain GT Series Asia’s Japanese events, also made a strong start. Their distinctive metallic maroon Ferrari 488 GT3 posted the third fastest time courtesy of Kota Sasaki, who was just 0.004s slower than Picariello but 0.089s faster than Alex Yoong’s Audi R8 LMS Cup entry.
Phoenix Racing Asia team-mates Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong - running under the Audi Hong Kong banner - edged out fellow Silver Cup title contenders Aditya Patel and Mitch Gilbert to claim fifth overall, while another race-by-race Japanese entry - D’station Racing’s Porsche 991 GT3 R driven by Satoshi Hoshino and Seiji Ara - finished one tenth further back.
Massimiliano Wiser’s Spirit of Race Ferrari completed the top-eight ahead of Milestone Racing’s Audi and #the 888 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG.
CarGuy Racing ensured all three Super Taikyu teams finished inside the top-11, but there was less encouragement for GT3 championship leader Hunter Abbott who ended up 15th in the opening session.
Elsewhere, Takuya Shirasaka and Naoto Takeda made home advantage count in the fight for Am Cup bragging rights. KCMG’s all-Japanese pairing beat X-One Motorsports’ Andrew Haryanto and Samson Chan by an impressive two seconds, with T2 Motorsports’ David Tjiptobiantoro and Gregory Teo Bee Tat another one second behind.
Taiwan Top Speed Racing also enjoyed a healthy advantage in GT4. Its Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR driven by George Chou and Kevin Chang set a best of 2m18.949s to lap half a second faster than class rivals Jean-Marc Merlin and Frank Yu (Craft-Bamboo Racing). HubAuto Racing’s Ringo Chong and Masahiko Ida completed the top-three, albeit a further two seconds back.
Second practice takes place at 17:00 local time this afternoon.