2023’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS drivers’ title went down to the wire, and saw Anthony Liu claim the honours in the final race of the season over the weekend at Sepang.
Race 1
Andrew Haryanto and James Yu denied Anthony Liu his chance to win the championship with a race to spare in the first race of the weekend.
Audi Sport Team Absolute’s R8 LMS GT3 Evo II took the chequered flag 1.8s clear of Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG after Dani Juncadella ran out of time to catch Yu who’d pulled 4.6s ahead immediately after the pitstops. Had the positions reversed, Liu would now be overall champion.
As it is, the Chinese driver will start this year’s final race 19 points ahead of both Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak. Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMG finished third overall thanks to Mikael Grenier’s battling drive, while the AAS/Absolute Porsche failed to score following an accident on the opening lap.
Racing briefly resumed after the subsequent Safety Car period but was halted again almost immediately, and this time by red flags, when Morris Chen suffered a big accident at the final hairpin. Chen emerged unhurt from his stricken Porsche, which was left perched at an angle on top of the tyre wall.
Hu Yuqi and Bian Ye each had an excursion in Climax Racing’s Mercedes-AMG, which failed to take the chequered flag. However, the car was still classified – enough for the Chinese pairing to seal this year’s Am title.
Elsewhere, Leo Ye Hongli and Yuan Bo (R&B Racing) took both the Silver class and Fanatec China Cup victories by finishing an excellent sixth overall. But the latter wasn’t enough to deny Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute’s Sun Jingzu and Franky Cheng the title.
The teams’ championship remains undecided, though, and also wide open between Absolute, Craft-Bamboo and R&B which are separated by 11 points. 43 are still available for finishing one-two tomorrow.
The majority of the opening stint took place behind the Safety Car where pole man Haryanto held off Liu not once or twice but at three separate restarts.
Hu’s spin meant the pack had bunched again under Full Course Yellow conditions when the pit window opened after 25 minutes. Absolute’s Audi pitted marginally ahead of Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG, and that was enough for Yu to retain the lead from Juncadella when both rejoined.
Track conditions had gone back to green at that point, and it was Yu’s performance over his first two laps that ultimately earned his team victory. Juncadella homed back in towards the finish but couldn’t get close enough to attack the Chinese driver who managed the race perfectly en route to his and Haryanto’s second win of the season.
But if theirs was something of a phony war, the battle for third was anything but.
Triple Eight JMR’s championship challenger Ibrahim completed the opening stint in sixth. Grenier rejoined in the same position but knew only fourth would suffice to keep his co-driver in contention come tomorrow. But he went one better by passing Edoardo Mortara, Leo Ye Hongli and Eshan Pieris in quick succesion en route to the final step on the podium.
The result means Ibrahim, along with Inthraphuvasak, must win on Sunday to have any chance of overturning Liu’s 19-point lead.
A charging Patrick Pilet took fourth in the Porsche he shares with Lu Wei despite the duo serving a five-second Success Penalty. However, with Liu finishing second, that wasn’t enough to keep the latter in overall title contention.
Mortara passed Ye and Pieries to finish fifth in the Absolute Racing Porsche co-driven by Bao Jinlong, while R&B had Yuan’s excellent start – going from eighth to third – to thank for its sixth place overall and class wins.
Porsche Center Okazaki and Phantom Pro completed the top-eight.
Guest driver Antares Au won the Am class on his own but it was AMAC’s full-season pairing of Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter who scored maximum points. That, however, wasn’t sufficient to deny Hu and Ye the title after their Mercedes-AMG was classified despite ending its race in the tyre barrier.
Elsewhere, Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia’s Haridarma Manoppo and Seita Nonaka collected their fourth GT4 victory of the season.
Race 2
Craft-Bamboo’s Anthony Liu is the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS drivers’ champion after Abu Bakar Ibrahim and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak both failed to overturn their 19-point deficits in the season finale at Sepang.
Lu Wei and Patrick Pilet led home team-mates Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli to secure the teams’ championship for R&B Racing. However, their one-two also impacted Ibrahim’s chances of clinching the drivers’ crown. With Liu finishing only 10th, victory would have secured the title for Ibrahim. Instead, third place for Triple Eight JMR’s Mercedes-AMG – which also featured Mikael Grenier – left the Johor Prince five points shy of his Chinese rival.
Liu added the Pro-Am crown to his overall achievement despite spinning midway through the second stint. His co-driver Dani Juncadella had earlier calmed nerves somewhat by pitting from seventh after starting 11th before a 10-second Success Penalty dropped the car outside of the points scoring positions.
The only other championship contender, Inthraphuvasak, came home sixth despite Klaus Bachler’s lap one excursion. Like Ibrahim, the AAS Motorsport by Absolute Racing Porsche had to win to have any hope of overhauling Liu.
Despite Liu’s 19-point lead, grid positions and Success Penalties set the stage for an unpredictable final hour of the season at Sepang where HUBAUTO’s Alvaro Parente converted pole position into a stint-long lead over Pilet.
Grenier dutifully followed the Porsches after starting third, while Ye held station behind in a top four covered by little more than two seconds throughout the first 30 minutes.
HUBAUTO and R&B’s 911s emerged from their stops just as they had entered but swapped places soon after when Lu dived down the inside of Morris Chen at the final hairpin.
He lost further places to Yuan and then Ibrahim, who originally rejoined fourth following his and Grenier’s extra five seconds. But R&B’s Porsches ahead were unlikely to jeopardise a one-two finish and the maximum points that would guarantee the teams’ championship by squabbling amongst themselves, which limited Ibrahim’s chances of victory.
He ultimately took the chequered flag six seconds behind race winner Lu to make it two podiums on home soil this weekend.
Liu, of course, was aware of Ibrahim’s situation and could even afford to spin down the order midway through his stint after a 10-second Success Penalty cost the Mercedes-AMG places in the pits. He battled back to finish 10th after winning a particularly fierce battle with Abu Bakar’s older brother Jefri Ibrahim over the final laps.
Phantom Pro’s Chris On Chia and Mikkel Mac saved their best result of the season for the final race, and also completed the Pro-Am podium, by finishing fourth overall. Their Audi beat Hiroaki Nagai and Yuta Kamimura – who set fastest lap – by just 0.2s, while the recovering Inthraphuvasak made up 10 positions en route to sixth.
Absolute went into the final race leading the teams’ championship but lost out to R&B as a result of their sixth and seventh places, while HUBAUTO rounded out the top eight.
Further back, Antares Au and Modena Motorsports added a second Am class win to their weekend’s work by beating AMAC’s Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter.
Fanatec GT Asia returns to Sepang for the start of its 2024 campaign on April 19-21.
Image courtesy of World Challenge Asia
