An insidious drizzle late in the GT3/GTC race could have made things a lot trickier but Xu Jia/Mitch Gilbert, and CJ Huang cemented victory before the chasing pack could mount a challenge. Martin Rump and Naomi Zhang took advantage of a late Safety Car and a perfectly executed pit stop to snatch the Audi’s maiden victory in GT4. 

GT3 Class

Pole man Xu Jia avoided the melee in a chaotic GT3 start that saw the top runners trading places. The twin TSRT Audis emerged unscathed but the remaining R8 of Wang Liang was less lucky. The Chinese driver made contact with the #911 in front, damaged the front left and spun out of turn 1, dropping him back to P5. However, Li Chao was the biggest victim of the starting frenzy: he got hit in the rear twice and spent most of the time picking off the slower GTC cars and GT3 opponents before him. 

Further in front, Billy Lo in the Audi LMS ultra passed teammate Michael Choy to take second, but Xu’s KINGS has already built up a lead that saw him heading into the pit in P1. Sadly for the #1 Audi, an intra-team pits top mix up had cost the leader nearly 30 seconds, and Xu’s teammate Mitch Gilbert came out of the pit behind D2’s AMG. 

It did not take long for the Blancpain star to carve his way through the order. His time was consistently in the 1:27s and he set the fastest lap (1:26.863) on lap 33. After a multi-lap scrap with then leader TSRT’s #888 David Chen, the Aussie came out on top and held on to the lead towards the chequered flag. 

Fortunately the first lap madness did not cause too much damage to the Porsche 911 GT3, and Li’s co-driver Chris van der Drift went on a charge. He clocked some blistering laps and nipped through Martin Rump’s damaged Audi, a spinning D2 AMG, and the #666 to take the last place on the podium. 

Martin Rump came off the back of a GT4 win earlier in the morning, but the damage to the #8 has cost the Estonian about a second a lap and he finished outside the podium. 

The #666 TSRT had to serve a drive through penalty on lap 28 for an earlier on-track incident. They finished in P5 ahead of JRM’s Li Jiaqi and Min Heng, who was crowned winner of the GT3 Am/Am category. 

Starting from the third row, D2’s Kuo Kuo Hsin also managed to stay out of trouble during the start. He was briefly running in third in the earlier stint, but a few mistakes and a late puncture have consigned him to the back of the grid. 

GTC Class

CJ Huang spent most of his first stint staring at the rear of Xtreme Motorsports’ #68 Radical, who started from pole. 2017 GTC champion claimed to have found an extra 0.4 seconds since Friday qualifying, and patiently waited for a chance to snatch the lead. The opportunity came after the mandatory pit stop change, and his win was cemented when the Radical suffered a breakdown towards the closing laps of the race.

Dominic Ang and Song Bo of in the second Xtreme Motorsports Radical had some issues with set up but benefited from their ill-fated teammate to finish second. R+ Racing’s Daniel Lu and Wang Tao took their first podium of the season, ahead of teammates Pan Chao and Shang Lei.

GT4 Class

As light went green, Winning Team’s Charlie Fagg charged forward to secure his lead ahead of the chasing pack. Teammate in the #540 Benjamin Rouget also made an impressive start, picking off his opponents one by one to make it a McLaren 1-2 in the first half of the hour-long session. 

In the back, a multi-lap battle for P4 was brewing among the Lotus of Anthony Chan, BMW of Kevin Chen and the Aston Martin of Ryan Liu. This ended with a T6 spin by Liu on lap 10, and Chen muscled past the Lotus at the end of the straight on lap 12. 

When pit window opened the leading pack of Fagg, Rouget and Ashton stayed out while the remaining entries dived into the pit for driver change. 

The Winning Team McLarens were looking absolutely dominant, but the huge lead built by Pro drivers Fagg and Rouget in the beginning stint suddenly disappeared when the Safety Car was called on lap 24 due to a piece of debris on turn 1. After the restart, more experienced campaigners Martin Rump and Sennan Fielding passed the #91 BMW and the struggling McLarens to take first and second. David McIntyre had an incident with Yu Zhao and damaged his front right; his lap time suffered and he dropped behind Ivan Lee to finish outside the podium. 

Dominic Ang and Anthony Chan of Team Lotus, Benjamin Rouget and Raph Lai of Winning Team, Jack Mitchell and Ryan Liu of China Equity AMR, David Pun and Yu Zhao of China Equity AMR, and Thomas Ashton and Shi Liang of Xtreme Motorsports completed the final points-paying positions.

DRIVER QUOTES

GT3 Class

1^stPlace

KINGS Racing

Xu Jia: I had a good start and kept my lead, but couldn’t quite pull away from the TSRT rivals. We made a mistake during the pit stop, and I was blocked by my teammate in the #8 and lost half a minute. Mitch did a great job regaining the positions and brought us a win.

Mitchell Gilbert: We lost a few positions after the driver change but I was pretty confident that I’d get them back. It was a clean race and fair battle with David. It rained towards the end so it was tricky to gauge the track conditions as the leading car.  

2^ndPlace

TSRT Racing

Michael Choy: I was quite glad to stay out of trouble during the start, and gain a position as a result.

David Chen: We had a good pit stop so that played into our hands. Our lap times are still lacking a bit compared to our rivals, but hopefully we would have that figured out by tomorrow, and maybe go for a win. 

3^rdPlace

JRM Motorsports

Li Chao: I dropped to the back at the start, but the car felt ok and I just had to keep pushing and regain my position. I managed to get close to Wang Liang before the driver change. Chris’ pace was really good, and we were lucky to get P3. We will start from the second row tomorrow so hoping to take the fight to the leading Audis. 

Chris van der Drift: The car felt better than in qualifying, but a bit of rain would have been great help. 

AM/AM Winner

JRM Motorsports

Min Heng: We had a good pit stop change. I was blocked by some GTC cars, and made a mistake on turn 14. 

Li Jiaqi: This is my first time racing on this track so I spent most of the time still learning the track. I managed to escape the starting carnage so that was lucky. The circuit here is quite slippery, so trying to find enough grip can be a challenge, 

GTC Class

1^stPlace

AM/AM Winner

D2 Racing

CJ Huang: Our team spent the entire night set up the car so our pace has improved by 0.4 second compared to Friday. Tomorrow we will carry an extra 15kg in success weight but that wont be as challenging to as this cold I’m fighting. 

2^ndPlace

Xtreme Motorsports

Song Bo: Our car had an issue with the set up but we only realized it after my stint. We hope to fix that problem in the future. Dominic set the fastest lap in the Class so all thanks goes to him.

Dominic Ang: We got lucky. Our teammate suffered an issue we could get P2 and take home some good points.

3^rdPlace

R+ Racing

Wang Tao: many thanks to the team and my teammate for a good race today. I am very happy to get a podium finish.

Daniel Lu: Our car is quick but not quick enough to keep up with the GTC rivals. Our car is also rather heavy compared to the radical, so I lost a position. 

GT4 Class

1^stPlace

KINGS Racing

Naomi Zhang: I haven’t driven on this circuit before so I am still getting used to it, and trying to cut down my lap time. Very happy to score a win today.

Martin Rump: We were still trying to find the right set up for the car in yesterday’s qualifying, so we started from P8. We still need to study the data a bit after today and try to explore the full potential of the R8 GT4. 

2^ndPlace 

K2C Motorsports

Kenny Chung: We are still working on the right set up for the car, because this is our first time here and it’s a new BOP. We have limited data to work with. Today we got lucky with the safety car, and hopefully we’ll reach the top step of the podium tomorrow.

Sennan Fielding: We made some changes to the car last night based on the information on Friday. Safety Car definitely played into our hands a bit. We hope to go for a win tomorrow.

3^rdPlace

AM/AM Winner 

Fist Team AAI

Kevin Chen: we had a couple of days to set up the car so it’s in prime conditions. It was a very competitive race, and I am happy with today’s results.

Ivan Lee: Great to get this result on our first run here. Better luck tomorrow!