> Third straight Race 1 pole for Silver class Ferrari
> Origine’s Porsche beats JMR Corvette to Q2 fastest time
> Results: Okayama qualifying
Andy Yi extended Harmony’s grip on Q1 to three races by bagging pole for today’s GT World Challenge Asia powered by Asia encounter at Okayama before Bastian Buus took Q2 top spot for the second time in as many seasons with Origine.
Both enjoyed significant margins over their respective front row starters Anthony Liu (Phantom Global Racing) – who set Q1’s fastest Pro-Am time – and the JMR Corvette driven by Ben Green.
Q1
Liu Kailuo claimed the #96 Ferrari’s poles at Chang and Fuji, but the change of approach had no difference at Okayama where his co-driver Yi was simply untouchable in Q1 en route to 1m28.368s and a 0.4s advantage over anyone else.
Indeed, Yi was the first driver to set a time and remained unbeaten thereafter thanks to two more consecutive fastest laps, while his four-tenth advantage over the rest also covered positions two through eight.
As such, the scrap for second overall that featured several Am and Silver drivers proved far more competitive. Those of the latter grading should have enjoyed a natural advantage, so Liu’s lap to snatch second from Cheng by just two hundredths was especially impressive.
Championship leader Bob Yuan missed out on third by the smallest of margins – 0.001s – but will be delighted to see his nearest title rival Jefri Ibrahim restricted to 20th. Their Origine Porsche and JMR Corvette will be stationary for an extra 10 and 15 seconds this afternoon thanks to success penalties earned at Fuji.
Uno Racing’s Rio heads up row three from Buus’ co-driver Lu Wei, while Hirobon secured Silver-Am pole one position further back aboard 5ZIGEN’s Nissan.
LM Corsa’s Ferrari driven by Kei Nakanishi clinched Am class pole in 13th overall.
Q2
Buus proved last year’s Okayama pole was no fluke by setting a scintillating pace in Q2 that broke Green and JMR’s recent run of domination. The Dane’s 1m27.485s was also 0.362s faster than the Corvette – the largest margin between first and second in Pro qualifying this year.
And it would have been even wider had Green not improved on his final run, which reduced the deficit from half-a-second.
Debutant Ye Yifei was the first to set a representative time aboard Harmony’s Ferrari before Jayden Ojeda briefly jumped to the top by lapping 0.001s faster. Green lowered the benchmark considerably just five seconds later and was immediately joined on the provisional front row by team-mate Alexander Sims. Both times appeared competitive.
Buus was in no rush to reveal his true pace, though, so it wasn’t until two minutes later that Origine’s Porsche moved half-a-second clear of the field.
Green improved soon after to make sure of second from Origine’s other 911 driven by Leo Ye. In a stark contrast to Q1, just 0.077s separated this year’s leading title contenders.
Silver-Am pole went to Daan Arrow who qualified Vollgas’ Porsche an excellent fourth overall and just 0.006s faster than Sims who, unlike his team-mate, was unable to improve.
Another class pole winner, Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s Yu Kuai (Silver), was similarly impressive in sixth, while Shigekazu Wakisaka completed LM Corsa’s clean sweep of Am.
Race 1 gets underway at 13:00 JST. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.
