Franky Cheng and Ralf Aron bagged a pole position apiece in 2025’s first GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS qualifying session at Sepang this morning.
FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s entry beat another R8, Uno Racing’s example driven by series returnee Shaun Thong, to Q1 top spot by just over two tenths before the Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG led a Q2 top four covered by 0.130s.
Q1
GT World Challenge Asia’s qualifying format often sees Silver-graded drivers take Race 1 pole, and so it proved once again at Sepang where Cheng underlined his credentials by twice setting fastest lap. He’ll now fully expect to convert P1 into victory, just as he did here last year.
Thong, meanwhile, returns to the series full-time this year along with debutants Uno Racing. And they’ll start their first race together on the front row after nosing ahead of Origine’s Porsches towards the end of Q1.
His lap pushed reigning champion and leading Pro-Am contender Bob Yuan down to third, albeit by just 0.03s. He heads up row two alongside team-mate Lu Wei who edged out another Chinese driver, Andy Deng Yi (Winhere Harmony Racing). JMR’s Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim completed the top six in the new Corvette.
Andrew Macpherson’s withdrawal gave AMAC’s other driver, Ben Porter, the chance to claim both Am class pole positions. And he began that quest in emphatic fashion by taking 10th overall – some 14 places ahead of his nearest class rival and one position behind Silver-Am’s top performer, Ron Huang (Absolute Corse).
Q2
Precisely one second separated the top 16 in GT World Challenge Asia’s customarily competitive second qualifying session. But it was Aron’s 2m03.440s effort that ultimately proved fastest of all.
Alexander Sims set the pace on Friday and looked capable of doing so again in JMR’s #99 Corvette. He jumped to the top early on despite a near run-in with team-mate Jordan Love at the final corner that undoubtedly compromised his lap time.
Jayden Ojeda (Craft-Bamboo) and Max Oosten (KRC) both took turns at the top soon after before Aron’s fastest lap settled the score in Climax’s favour.
He’s joined on the front row by Dorian Boccolacci who was also a frontrunner throughout Q2 despite never quite setting the outright pace. Just 0.087s separated Phantom’s Porsche from the pace-setting Mercedes-AMG.
The leading Silver-Am, Oosten, and Sims – who improved to fourth – share the second row tomorrow, while Ojeda starts fifth and Bastian Buus (Origine) sixth.
James Yu added Race 2 Silver pole to his co-driver Cheng’s overall Race 1 pole position. Further back, Porter completed his 100% qualifying record by topping the Am times.
Saturday’s 60-minute race begins at 14:20 local time. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.