> Back-to-back Q1 poles for FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom
> Craft-Bamboo beats Winhere Harmony to fastest Q2 time
> Results: Mandalika qualifying
FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom and Craft-Bamboo Racing will start Indonesia’s first-ever GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS races from pole position after Cheng Congfu and Jayden Ojeda topped Q1 and Q2, respectively.
This was a second pole in as many events for Cheng who also started Sepang’s season opener up front, while Ojeda backed up his pre-event testing pace when it mattered most over one lap.
Daniel Frost had earlier underlined Craft-Bamboo’s potential by lapping within a tenth of Chen to claim a spot on Race 1’s front row before Lorenzo Patrese powered Winhere Harmony’s Ferrari to Silver-Am pole and an impressive second overall in Q2.
Q1
Cheng had just replaced early pace setter Zhang at the top of the times when Adrian D’Silva spun his Porsche into the gravel trap, necessitating a red flag.
Q1 resumed with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining, and Cheng immediately increased his advantage to 0.8s by recording a 1m29.148s.
That would remain fast enough for pole, albeit by a greatly reduced margin thanks to Frost whose subsequent lap was 0.086s slower.
The fastest Pro-Am time went to Anthony Liu who starts Race 1 from third place. He was 0.3s down on Cheng and just over a tenth clear of Chen Weian in Harmony’s #96 Ferrari.
Leading Silver-Am contender Huang Ruohan (Absolute Corse Lamborghini) made it as many different manufacturers in the top five, while Yuan’s Origine Porsche dropped from second to sixth in the final reckoning.
Ben Porter was the top Am runner in 16th overall.
Those positions might well have changed in the final moments without a red flag that ultimately curtailed the session. Incidentally, Bao Jinlong’s stranded Audi might well have guaranteed pole for Phantom’s sister car whose provisional pole time was under threat from Frost. Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG was, at the time, fastest of all in the first two sectors…
Q2
The depth of Asia’s Pro class meant there were no shortage of pole candidates, but it was Ojeda – whose time from Thursday’s third test stood as the fastest-ever by a GT3 car around Mandalika before qualifying – who grabbed pole.
The Australian’s 1m28.145s was two tenths quicker than that and, crucially, 0.1s clear of Patrese who jumped up to second as the 15-minute session ticked towards its conclusion.
Yu Kanamaru did likewise aboard Team 5ZIGEN’s Nissan to make it two Silver-Am entries in the overall top three. He shares Row 3 with Dorian Boccolacci’s Phantom Porsche, while Thierry Vermuelen starts fifth on his championship debut with Absolute Corse.
Alessio Picariello completed a top six covered by 0.4s.
Winhere Harmony’s other Ferrari took Silver honours in 11th overall while Andrew Bentley claimed Am pole on debut with EBM.
He first international car race ever staged at Mandalika begins at 13:30 local time (UTC +8) today. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.