> Silver rivals Nandy and Yu/Cheng complete overall podium
> Class wins for Porsche Center Okazaki and Origine
> Result: Sepang Race 1
Huang Ruohan and Alessandro Ghiretti claimed victory in the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season opener at Sepang where a Full Course Yellow period helped Absolute's Porsche jump ahead of its Lamborghini stablemate driven by Akash Nandy.
The Silver entries' extra three seconds of pitstop time also played a part in the outcome. But neither of those external factors should take anything away from Ghiretti and Huang’s collective performance after the latter qualified third.
Nandy, who drove solo, finished 6.8s behind the winning 911 GT3 R Evo but scored maximum Silver class points after withstanding pressure from rival Yu Kuai, who shared the FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry with Cheng Congfu, immediately after the pitstop cycle.
A maiden Silver-Am victory went to Porsche Center Okazaki's Kiyoshi Uchiyama and Tsubasa Kondo, while Wang Zhongwei and Liu Hangcheng (Origine Motorsport) were Am winners despite serving a drive-through penalty.
Victory was Porsche’s 21st in GT World Asia, drawing it level with the previous sole record holder, Mercedes-AMG. And Nandy also made a little bit of history by becoming the first driver to win the Silver class solo.
Season 8 began with Nandy ending lap one ahead of Cheng, Huang, the 5ZIGEN Nissan of Takayuki Ayoki and Andrés Pato’s Phantom Audi, while the fast-starting Liu moved up three places to further cement his Am class lead.
Several of those places came at Deng Yi’s expense. But while Winhere Harmony’s Ferrari soon made amends, its race came to a premature conclusion five minutes before the pit window opened when a driveshaft issue on the penultimate straight not only ended the car’s race but also restricted Nandy and Cheng’s chances of building a substantial gap over Huang.
Swapping with Ghiretti at the first opportunity gave the GT World Asia debutant and reigning Porsche Supercup champion an opportunity to undercut the Lamborghini and Audi ahead. Nandy was more than three seconds clear, enough in theory to retain the lead despite his longer minimum pitstop time. In reality, Ghiretti’s speed and Nandy’s slower than necessary stop helped the Porsche take a lead it never looked like losing thereafter.
Nandy’s focus then turned to preserving second place and the Silver class victory. Cheng’s newly installed co-driver Yu was already up to speed when the Lamborghini emerged just ahead, but he couldn’t immediately profit from the Huracan’s colder tyres and was ultimately forced to settle for third overall.
5ZIGEN’s Nissan finished one place ahead of where it started in Atsushi Miyake’s hands but right on the tail of the Lamborghini and Audi ahead.
Fifth, sixth and seventh went to three cars that spent much of the race together. Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci eventually scampered clear to complete the top five after a collision between Lu Wei and Pato earned Origine’s 911 a five-second penalty at the chequered flag. It had no impact on the order, however, with Alessio Picariello classified just ahead of Jaxon Evans.
Behind, Uchiyama and Kondo finally claimed their maiden class victory at the start of their fourth season together. The Porsche Center Okazaki entry was a solid top 10 contender throughout en route to eighth overall.
Sepang’s second race starts at 11:30 local time on Sunday. Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel and app.
