> Results: Q1 | Q2
Akash Nandy and Bastian Buus helped Absolute Racing make the perfect start to its GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS campaign by claiming a pole apiece at Sepang.
The Lamborghini and Porsche halves of Absolute’s garage both had something to celebrate after Nandy beat Cheng Congfu (FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom) to Q1 top spot by half-a-second and Buus led a Porsche 1-2-3 separated by one tenth.
Nandy was a class apart in Q1. After setting an initial banker, his following three laps would all have been fast enough for pole. But it was the final effort – 2m04.093s – that ultimately sealed Race 1’s ideal starting position for the Malaysian on home soil.
Cheng couldn’t respond but did at least qualify the Audi on the front row. He was two tenths faster than the leading Am driver, Huang Ruohan, who impressively beat Silvers Deng Yi (Winhere Harmony Racing) and Takayuki Aoki (Team 5ZIGEN).
Origine’s Porsche driven by Liu Hangcheng was quickest of the Am class entries, while Porsche Center Okazaki’s Kiyoshi Uchiyama topped the Silver-Am times in 13th overall.
Nandy is driving solo this weekend but couldn’t make it two poles from two in the second session. Instead, it was Buus who took control at half-distance and wasn’t beaten thereafter despite the best efforts of his fellow Porsche drivers.
Just one tenth covered the Dane, who set a 2m03.287s, from Alessio Picariello (Origine) and the other Absolute 911 driven by debutant Alessandro Ghiretti who jumped up the order long after the chequered flag dropped.
His lap pushed 5ZIGEN’s Nissan driven by leading Silver Atsushi Miyake down to fourth, while Neil Verhagen and Yu Kuai share row three in their respective KRC BMW and FAW/Phantom Audi.
Maxime Oosten was fastest of the Silver-Am contingent in eighth overall, and Setiawan Santoso bagged Am class pole for Climax and Mercedes-AMG.
Race 1 starts at 14:15 local time this afternoon. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and app.
