> Results: Free Practice | Bronze Session | Pre-Qualifying
GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS debutant Alexander Sims set the pace in practice ahead of this weekend’s season opener at Sepang.
It was also a dream start for JMR’s Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which – like its British driver – has never contested the series before.
The combination set the day’s fastest time – 2m04.097s – just 12 minutes into Free Practice after Markus Winkelhock briefly occupied the top of the timesheets in Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s R8. It ultimately finished 0.281s adrift.
Harmony’s #55 Ferrari set the session and day’s third fastest time in Lorenzo Patrese’s hands, while Bastian Buus’ Pre-Qualifying benchmark of 2m04.715s helped Origine’s #4 Porsche slot into fourth overall.
Friday’s second session might have been slower than the first but its leading contenders were separated by fractions. Reigning champion Leo Ye Hongli lapped 0.06s slower than Buus and just two hundredths faster than Climax Racing’s Mercedes-AMG driven by Ralf Aron. The gaps extended thereafter, although a second still covered the top-10 at the end of Pre-Qualifying.
Patrese’s time saw the Italian end up quickest of the Silver-Am entries, while Harmony team-mate David Chen set the day’s Silver benchmark.
Am honours went to Anthony Liu (Phantom Porsche) who topped the Bronze session.
Saturday begins with qualifying at 10:25 before 2025’s season opener goes green at 14:15 local time (GMT +7). Both are live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.