2018 China GT Half-season digest
China GT’s summer break is here. After 6 rounds of races, the drivers and team personnel will take a break from a flurry of actions while we take stock of what has happened in the first half of the 2018 season.
GT3 Class – Championship takes shape as Audi Sport exerts dominance
The GT3 drivers’ championship is starting to take shape as KINGS Racing’s Xu Jia leads with a comfortable margin. However, teammates Wang Liang and Martin Rump, and Team JRM rivals have also upended the form book this season, and are definitely a force to be reckoned with. The Audi R8 LMS has been a dominant presence on the GT3 grid this year, edging opponents to the most pole positions and wins so far.
2017’s reigning champion Xu Jia is showing even stronger form this season, and is leading the overall GT3 drivers’ championship by 11 points. The KINGS Racing driver has recorded 4 victories in the opening 6 races, and has never stepped off the top step of the podium barring two retirements due to family emergency and mechanical problem. Like last year, Xu only recruited the top guns on the market, partnering up with 2017 Audi R8 LMS Cup champion Alessio Picariello and LMS Cup and Blancpain GT Series Asia vice-champion Mitch Gilbert. The #1 driver pairing has consistently been the fastest on the GT3 grid with a hat trick of pole positions.
Teammate Wang Liang currently lies second in the GT3 drivers’ classification with 89 points. Wang had a roller coaster of a season so far: victory in Zhuhai opening rounds, followed by a lackluster weekend in Zhejiang, then bouncing back strongly in Beijing with a win and a podium. He again shares the wheel with 2017 partner Estonian youngster Martin Rump.
Team JRM’s Li Chao and Chris van der Drift currently occupy third in the standings, trailing Xu by 16 points and still very much in title contention. The PCCA duo has been ruing misfortune throughout the season, having had two victories denied due to post-race penalties for overtaking under SC and insufficient pit stop time; and lost what could have been 18 points from their first DNF in Beijing. The next round will be in Shanghai, where the Porsche duo scored their first victory in 2017. They might just be able to turn the championship on its head, so watch this space.
Further behind, TSRT Tianshi Racing’s David Chen and Michael Choy are in fourth with 66 points. Despite missing the Beijing rounds, the pair’s back-to-back podium finishes in the opening four races were enough to put them ahead of the sole AMG entry of Kuo Kuo Hsin.
It hadn’t been plain sailing for Taiwanese star Kuo, having suffered a sluggish start and post-race penalties throughout the season. However, he has shown the pace to challenge the front-runners and his performance picked up gradually as the season progressed. A strong showing in the latest races has vaulted Kuo to the top of the GT3 AM/AM standings with 57 points.
From sixth to eighth are Martin Rump, Alessio Picariello, Mitch Gilbert and Will Bamber – an all KINGS racing professional line-up to aid the team’s title bid.
TSRT Tianshi Racing’s Billy Lo and Max Wiser drove the first four races in the Audi LMS ultra, and are currently ninth on the GT3 drivers’ standings having missed the Beijing rounds.
Team JRM’s Min Heng is in P10 with 26 points and teammate Li Jiaqi in P11 with 24. Li had made a switch to the new R+ Racing Porsche 911 GT3R in Beijing he now shares with Pan Chao, thus erasing his previous points earned in the opening 4 races alongside Min. The brand new GT3R only just made it to Beijing on the day of qualifying, and bagged 24 points on its first run in China GT.
SF Racing’s Sean Fu and Andrea Caldarelli only took part in the Zhuhai round and have 22 points under their belt.
In Teams’ Championship, KINGS Racing currently leads by a whopping 82 points margin at 192 points against Team JRM, followed by TSRT Tianshi Racing, D2 Racing, R+ Racing and SF Racing.
