> Result: Pre-Qualifying
Yu Kanamaru set consecutive fastest times to top GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS Pre-Qualifying for Team 5ZIGEN at Chang.
The Silver-Am class Nissan that was quick at the same venue last season en route to an overall podium suggested it could pose a threat once again by lapping 0.4s faster than anything else in the final practice session. Kanamaru set his times in the first 20 minutes, the second of which – 1m33.717s – remained unbeaten thereafter.
Only the GT-R lapped faster than Daniel Morad’s Official Practice benchmark. And it was the same driver and Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG that posed the biggest threat to Kanamaru. The Canadian’s best time was two tenths slower than he managed this morning and a similar margin clear of the car in third: Team KRC’s BMW driven by Maxime Oosten.
Incredibly, the top seven places were occupied by as many different manufacturers in Official Practice. There was no repeat this afternoon but Lamborghini and Porsche did at least finish inside the first five along with Nissan, Mercedes-AMG and BMW.
Absolute Corse’s Loris Spinelli took the newly liveried B-Quik Huracan to fourth overall, while Daan Arrow and Vollgas added a third Silver-Am entry to the top of the leaderboard just behind.
FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai were again the quickest Silver combination in eighth, although their margin over Uno’s Rio and Shaun Thong was little more than a tenth.
Further back, EBM’s Setiawan Santoso and Andrew Bentley maintained their grip on the Am class.
Qualifying gets underway at 11:00 ICT (GMT +7) on Saturday before the first of this weekend’s two races goes green at 15:00. Both are live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.