Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Asia in Suzuka has been won by the Porsche of Klaus Bachler and Vuttikhorn Inthraphuvasak after it hunted down the #500 Nissan GT-R and the leading McLaren crew mis-timed its pit stop.
The #911 AAS Motorsport by Absolute Racing Porsche 911 started 13th on the grid after a chaotic qualifying session but made early progress and a flying finish to take victory in what was Bachler’s first time at the Japanese circuit.
“It’s a really good day for us – the car was amazing, we had a great pit stop also. So in the end, we did zero mistakes, and this is already half of everything,” Bachler said.
“No mistakes at the pit stop, really good car, I could drive consistent. The other side could see the struggle a bit more next to me.
“In qualifying we had not the balance what we liked the most, but in the end, that’s sometimes how it is in racing, track conditions are different. But we did a perfect small change for the race and it was amazing.”
The #16 ABSSA Motorsport McLaren 720S of Keita Sawa started from pole, after the #29 Phantom Pro Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo II of Kang Ling that had set the fastest time in qualifying had its lap deleted post-session as a result of breaching track limits.
The #29 Audi was relegated to fourth in the grid, falling to fifth momentarily as the green flag was waved.
Sawa led Shintaro Hirobon in the #500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan GT-R Nismo and Ye Bian in the #3 Mercedes-AMG into Turn 1, but behind them the #47 D’Station Racing Aston Martin of Satoshi Hoshino was tipped into a spin by the #16 Porsche.
Hoshino ending up stranded in the S Curves, with the #8 Earl Bamber Porsche driven by Setiawan Santoso also caught up and heading to pit with minor damage.
A yellow flag quickly became a Safety Car after only a little more than a lap’s racing.
After five laps, the restart saw Sawa again lead the field ahead of Hirobon and Bian’s Mercedes-AMG, before a Safety Car was deployed – which quickly became a Red Flag – after less than 60s of green flag running.
After around 22 minutes, a restart under the Safety Car – which reverted back to the positions the lap before the red flag, which essentially was identical to the initial Safety Car period – was undertaken.
The green flag was waved with just under 39 mins remaining, as the #29 Audi and #37 Mercedes of Anthony Liu dived into the pit lane to take their drive-through penalties that were handed down ahead f the race – but lost even more time as both cars were held until the entire field had passed by.
A post-race investigation was still pending at the time of publication on how the penalties were undertaken for both.
Lap 8 and Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the #88 became caught up in a shuffle between five cars at the hairpin, climbing to 16th as a gaggle of cars were caught up.
The #88 Mercedes was then facing pressure from the #992 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 of Jinlong Bao, who made a mistake that allowed the #5 BMW Team Studie of Tomohide Yamaguchi up the inside at the chicane instead to leave #88 some breathing space.
With 32 mins remaining, the pit stop cycle began as the #60 LMcorsa Ferrari went off but escaped unscathed. The #888 pitted for Broc Feeney to take over, who passed Team GMB Mercedes-AMG of Shinya Hosokawa on track for P29 before the pit stops played out.
Sawa was still leading from Bian and Hirobon, ahead of the Porsches of Bo Yuan and Wei Lu and pitted with 28:30 remaining, fresh rubber going on the #16 McLaren during its regulated 90-second stop.
The McLaren rejoined with Masataka Inoue at the wheel ahead of the #500 GT-R, with Ling in third yet to pit.
Yet Kawabata, driving the #500 Nissan, made it past on track to put the Nissan GT-R into the lead ahead of the #16 McLaren, which then faced a penalty for not taking the full 90 seconds to pit which ended its changes of victory.
After 13 laps, Ling pitted along with Liu, which saw Kawabata take the lead while massive battle for third between James Yu (#11 Audi) Patrick Pilet (#4 Porsche) and Naoki Yokomizo (#555 Ferrari).
Pilet made it past Hu for seventh as – with 21 mins left – as the #16 McLaren took its a six-second penalty.
This left the #500 GT-R, which was already 7.5s ahead of the second-placed McLaren before the latter’s penalty was served, well ahead of the field.
Inoue rejoined the #16 McLaren in 20th after taking the stop, with 18 mins left to attempt to cover the ground lost.
Behind Kawabata at the front was Bachler, who’d managed to win the fight for second pace with Yu, in third, and Yuta Kamimura (#18 Porsche) in fourth, with Pilet in fifth with 16 mins left to run.
Feeney had climbed from 30th to 24th with in the #888 Mercedes with 15 minutes left to run, while pole-sitter for tomorrow’s Race 2, Dani Juncadella, engaged in a thrilling few corners of battle with the #16 McLaren to prevail into 20th.
Inoue continued to struggle, losing places, while up front Pilet moved into fourth after a move on Yu’s Audi, before Kamimura made it past the Audi as Yu lost ground after an aggressive move from the Frenchman.
Yu then fell into the grasp of Yokomizo, who along with Lind and Ye who all faced off for fifth.
Meanwhile, the Bachler had demolished Kawabata’s race lead to less than a second eight minutes to go.
Bachler mounted some serious pressure on the Nissan, backmarkers limiting his attack before, as they crossed the line to start their 23rd lap, Bachler swept down the inside of Kawabata at the second corner, the GT-R sliding wide as the #911 Porsche took the lead.
Pilet was then issued a drive-through penalty which he served almost immediately, as Race Control deemed his contact on Yu’s Audi a few laps earlier a little too much. The penalty droped him from fourth to 13th with five minutes remaining, where he finished the race.
Feeney had taken two more positions into 22nd, with team-mate Stoltz in 20th place.
Bachler pulled out 2.5sec over Kawabata in his first lap at the front of the field, which was 5.068s as the clock reached zero and the Austrian commenced his 26th and final lap.
Race 2 takes place 11:30 local time/12:30 on Sunday July 16.
| Pos | No | Class | Team | Drivers | Car | Time | Laps | Gap | Diff | AV KPH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 911 | GT3 | AAS Motorsport by Absolute Racing | Vutthikorn INTHRAPHUVASAK, Klaus BACHLER | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:06.116 | 26 | |||
| 2 | 500 | GT3 | TEAM 5ZIGEN | HIROBON, Shintaro KAWABATA | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | 1:21:12.831 | 26 | 6.715 | 6.715 | |
| 3 | 18 | GT3 | Porsche Center Okazaki | Hiroaki NAGAI, Yuta KAMIMURA | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:14.210 | 26 | 8.094 | 1.379 | |
| 4 | 11 | GT3 | Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute | Andrew HARYANTO, James Kuai YU | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:21:20.911 | 26 | 14.795 | 6.701 | |
| 5 | 2 | GT3 | Climax Racing | Bihuang ZHOU, Dennis LIND | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:21:23.695 | 26 | 17.579 | 2.784 | |
| 6 | 555 | GT3 | Maezawa Racing | Piti BHIROMBHAKDI, Naoki YOKOMIZO | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo | 1:21:23.989 | 26 | 17.873 | 0.294 | |
| 7 | 87 | GT3 | R&B Racing | Bo YUAN, Leo Hongli YE | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:24.068 | 26 | 17.952 | 0.079 | |
| 8 | 22 | GT3 | KCMG | Paul Kung Ching IP, Edoardo LIBERATI | Honda NSX GT3 EVO | 1:21:24.198 | 26 | 18.082 | 0.130 | |
| 9 | 13 | GT3 | Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute | Jingzu SUN, Franky Congfu CHENG | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:21:25.126 | 26 | 19.010 | 0.928 | |
| 10 | 333 | GT3 | Phantom Pro Racing | Chris On CHIA, Mikkel MAC | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:21:34.467 | 26 | 28.351 | 9.341 | |
| 11 | 72 | GT3 | HUBAUTO RACING | Morris CHEN, Alvaro PARENTE | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:37.770 | 26 | 31.654 | 3.303 | |
| 12 | 5 | GT3 | BMW M Team Studie | Tomohide YAMAGUCHI, Seiji ARA | BMW M4 GT3 | 1:21:43.320 | 26 | 37.204 | 5.550 | |
| 13 | 4 | GT3 | R&B Racing | Wei LU, Patrick PILET | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:43.602 | 26 | 37.486 | 0.282 | |
| 14 | 85 | GT3 | Craft-Bamboo Racing | Jeffrey LEE, Maximilian GOETZ | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:21:44.984 | 26 | 38.868 | 1.382 | |
| 15 | 992 | GT3 | Absolute Racing | Jinlong BAO, Alexandre IMPERATORI | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:21:49.611 | 26 | 43.495 | 4.627 | |
| 16 | 3 | GT3 | Climax Racing | Ye BIAN, Yuqi HU | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:21:52.084 | 26 | 45.968 | 2.473 | |
| 17 | 14 | GT3 | HUBAUTO RACING WITH GTO | Brian LEE, Hideto YASUOKA | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:22:03.912 | 26 | 57.796 | 11.828 | |
| 18 | 17 | GT3 | CREF Motor Sport | Katsuaki KUBOTA, Atsushi MIYAKE | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1:22:04.137 | 26 | 58.021 | 0.225 | |
| 19 | 37 | GT3 | Craft-Bamboo Racing | Anthony Xu LIU, Daniel JUNCADELLA | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:22:04.734 | 26 | 58.618 | 0.597 | |
| 20 | 88 | GT3 | Triple Eight JMR | H.H.Prince Abu Bakar IBRAHIM, Luca STOLZ | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:22:05.209 | 26 | 59.093 | 0.475 | |
| 21 | 25 | GT3 | NK Racing | Kiyoshi UCHIYAMA, Tsubasa KONDO | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1:22:05.729 | 26 | 59.613 | 0.520 | |
| 22 | 888 | GT3 | Triple Eight JMR | H.H.Prince Jefri IBRAHIM, Broc FEENEY | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:22:12.857 | 26 | 1:06.741 | 7.128 | |
| 23 | 16 | GT3 | ABSSA Motorsport | Keita SAWA, Masataka INOUE | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1:22:30.378 | 26 | 1:24.262 | 17.521 | |
| 24 | 60 | GT3 | LMcorsa | Kei NAKANISHI, Shigekazu WAKISAKA | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1:22:41.258 | 26 | 1:35.142 | 10.880 | |
| 25 | 29 | GT3 | Phantom Pro Racing | Kang LING, Qi CAO | Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II | 1:22:42.785 | 26 | 1:36.669 | 1.527 | |
| 26 | 51 | GT3 | AMAC Motorsport | Andrew MACPHERSON, William Ben PORTER | Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.1) | 1:22:45.036 | 26 | 1:38.920 | 2.251 | |
| 27 | 33 | GT3 | Team GMB | Hiroaki HATANO, Shinya HOSOKAWA | Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO | 1:22:56.215 | 26 | 1:50.099 | 11.179 | |
| 28 | 7 | GT3 | Comet Racing | Yusuke YAMASAKI, Yorikatsu TSUJIKO | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1:23:04.471 | 26 | 1:58.355 | 8.256 | |
| 29 | 360 | GT3 | RUNUP SPORTS | Masaaki NISHIKAWA, Atsushi TANAKA | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 | 1:21:33.781 | 25 | 1 Lap | 1 Lap | |
| 30 | 50 | GT4 | BMW M Team Studie | Masaki KANO, Manabu ORIDO | BMW M4 GT4 G82 | 1:21:45.125 | 24 | 2 Laps | 1 Lap | |
| 31 | 71 | GT4 | Akiland Racing | Masayoshi OYAMA, Ryohei SAKAGUCHI | Toyota GR Supra GT4 | 1:22:05.670 | 24 | 2 Laps | 20.545 | |
| 32 | 718 | GT4 | Checkshop Caymania Racing | Naohiko OTSUKA, Sho KOBAYASHI | Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS Clubsport | 1:22:01.108 | 23 | 3 Laps | 1 Lap | |
| NC | 96 | GT3 | K-Tunes Racing | Hiromitsu FUJII, Morio NITTA | Lexus RC F GT3 | 14:10.042 | 5 | 21 Laps | 18 Laps | |
| NC | 8 | GT3 | EBM | Setiawan SANTOSO, Reid HARKER | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 11:40.308 | 3 | 23 Laps | 2 Laps | |
| NC | 47 | GT3 | D’station Racing | Satoshi HOSHINO, Tomonobu FUJII | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 | 0.000 | 0 | |||
| NS | 19 | GT3 | The Spirit Of FFF Racing | Mineki OKURA, Takuya SHIRASAKA | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO | 0.000 | 0 |
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