> Audi and Porsche start season opener up front.
> Results: Qualifying 1 | Qualifying 2
Franky Cheng and Laurin Heinrich bagged a ROWE Pole Award apiece in the first Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS qualifying session of the new season at Sepang this morning.
The FAW Audi Sport Asia Racing Team R8 starts this afternoon’s race from pole after Cheng lapped an impressive 0.779s faster than Yuan Bo, who was the leading Am. Origine Motorsport’s second Porsche driven by Lu Wei completed an overall top-three featuring Silver, Silver-Am and Pro-Am entries, respectively. Hiroshi Hamaguchi’s Audi was the best placed Am car in ninth.
Origine – which recorded a one-two at Sepang last year to seal the teams’ title – was also at the sharp end in Q2 where Heinrich’s 2m02.227s proved too hot for anyone else to handle. The German, who is making his series debut this weekend, finished more than half-a-second clear of Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG driven by Daniel Morad after the Canadian jumped ahead of Ralf Aron (Climax Racing) towards the end of Q2.
Leo Ye Hongli gave Origine a one-four, and another Silver-Am pole in the car he shares with Bo, while Absolute’s Akash Nandy topped the Silver class in 10th. And AMAC’s Ben Porter sealed top spot in Am.
More to follow.
