> Result: FP1
A quick early lap helped KCMG by Champion Racing’s Martin Rump top Blancpain GT Series Asia’s first practice session at Shanghai International Circuit earlier today, while the Craft-Bamboo Porsche driven by GT4 championship leaders Jean-Marc Merlin and Frank Yu set fastest time in class.
Up front, Audi driver Rump was quickest of the heavyweight Pro contingent that began the weekend’s opening 45-minute session. The Estonian’s best of 2m06.625s was 0.561s faster than GruppeM Racing and Mercedes-AMG’s Maxi Buhk, and a similar margin clear of Earl Bamber, whose Arrows Racing Porsche finished third. All three set their best times in the opening 10 minutes.
Alessio Picariello claimed the Audi R8 LMS Cup title here two weeks ago and could be a victory contender once again after taking his J-Fly by Absolute Racing-entered Audi to fourth, albeit 1.5s shy of Rump’s benchmark.
OD Racing’s Aditya Patel and Mitch Gilbert were the fastest Silver Cup crew on show after they pushed Nick Jones and Devon Modell’s Craft-Bamboo Porsche down to sixth, while Silver Cup points leaders and overall championship contenders Marchy Lee and Shaun Thong were less than a tenth further back in the Audi Hong Kong R8.
GruppeM’s Tim Sugden and Jules Szymkowiak plus Audi R8 LMS Cup-entered duo Alex Yoong and Alex Au ensured that the top-five Silver Cup crews were covered by only 0.133s. Both finished just ahead of newcomer Marvin Dienst who shares Craft-Bamboo’s second GT3 entry with Darryl O’Young for the first time this weekend
Elsewhere, FFF Racing Team by ACM’s Lin Yue and Zhu Junhan were fastest of the Am/Am runners in 17th overall after finishing 0.275s ahead of KCMG’s Naoto Takeda and Takuya Shirasaka.
The all-Porsche GT4 category was once again incredibly close but ultimately went the way of Craft-Bamboo’s championship leaders Merlin and Yu. Their best of 2m21.879s was 0.170s faster than HubAuto Racing’s Ringo Chong and series debutant James Wang, while Keo Chang and Jeff Lu (Taiwan TopSpeed Racing) were a similar amount further behind.
Friday’s second 45-minute practice session begins at 15:45 local time.