> Results leave championship battle finely poised
> Results: Sepang Qualifying
Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute and HUBAUTO RACING will each start the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS season finale from pole position after Andrew Haryanto and Alvaro Parente topped their respective qualifying sessions at Sepang this morning.
Haryanto is joined on Race 1’s front row by championship leader Anthony Liu (Craft-Bamboo Racing) who could wrap up the title today by winning for a fourth time this year. However, that will also depend on the results of his three rivals – Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim, Lu Wei and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak – who start fifth, sixth and seventh.
Q2 then went Parente’s way after the Portuguese driver vaulted to the top late in the 15-minute session. His Porsche starts alongside another 911 GT3 R driven by R&B Racing’s Patrick Pilet tomorrow, while Mikael Grenier (Triple Eight JMR) had to be content with third. Both of those cars will feature title contenders if Lu and Ibrahim can retain their mathematical chances this afternoon.
Behind, Inthraphuvasak is further back than he would have liked in seventh, and not least given his and Klaus Bachler’s 10-second Success Penalty.
Yuan Bo completed the top eight in R&B’s second Porsche, while Climax Racing’s #3 Mercedes-AMG was the best placed Am entry in ninth. Finishing there this afternoon would see Hu Yuqi and Bian Ye crowned class champions with a race to spare.
GT3 Q1
Haryanto and his co-driver James Yu, on the other hand, have nothing to lose but also know their way to Victory Lane after winning at Motegi. The Indonesian twice set fastest lap in Q1 and ultimately pipped Liu by 0.101s.
Cao Qi and Ling Kang wrapped up the Silver class crown in Okayama but now have work to do in the Fanatec China Cup standings if they’re to deny Sun Jingzu and Franky Cheng. However, Ling signalled the Phantom Pro crew’s intent by qualifying third – one place ahead of fellow Silver and home favourite Akash Nandy (B-Quik Absolute Racing).
Row three features title rivals Ibrahim and Lu who were both pushed back after making promising starts. Indeed, Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMG twice held provisional pole position.
Behind, Inthraphuvasak is further back than he would have liked in seventh, and not least given his and Klaus Bachler’s 10-second Success Penalty.
GT3 Q2
Two Porsches topped a Q2 session in which just one second covered the top 15, but it was Parente who got the better of Pilet by 0.189s to score HUBAUTO’s first pole of the season. His lap of 2m02.913s was comfortably the fastest of the weekend so far and came towards the end of the 15-minute session.
Pilet and Grenier’s co-drivers might no longer be in the reckoning tomorrow, subject to today’s results, but they will at least start in the top three.
Newly crowned Fanatec Japan Cup champion Yuta Kamimura hit the front at mid-distance but ultimately missed out on pole by 0.3s. He shares row two with Grenier, who eclipsed the Porsche Okazaki Center driver’s time before losing out to Parente.
Leo Ye Hongli (R&B Racing) was the top Silver class entrant in fifth, while Jesse Krohn set sixth fastest time aboard GH-Team AAI’s #90 BMW.
Two Audis share row four after Franky Cheng pipped Mikkel Mac by just 0.036s, Bachler got the better of Dennis Lind to line up ninth, and Broc Feeney starts 11th.
However, Craft-Bamboo’s strategy to cycle its Q2 tyres at the end of the first session didn’t work out for Juncadella who could only manage 12th. This afternoon’s results could dictate how much of an impact that will have on Liu’s championship chances…
Elsewhere, Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia’s Haridarma Manoppo and Seita Nonaka took the GT4 class pole positions.
The first of Sepang’s two 60-minute races starts at 15:45 (GMT +8) today. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel, Astro and SpoTV in Malaysia, and J Sports across Japan.
