BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- 5ZIGEN's Hirobon and Yu Kanamaru seized victory in the first of Sunday's two GT World Challenge Asia races, keeping the championship fight alive after a dramatic hour around Beijing's new street circuit.
Starting seventh, the duo's Nissan GT-R capitalized on trouble for several title contenders to take the chequered flag just 0.280 seconds ahead of Brian Lee and Nico Menzel, whose GTO Porsche had stormed through from 19th on the grid. Ruan Cunfan and Maxime Oosten completed the podium in their Team KRC BMW, a result that also secured them the Silver-Am title.
David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo retained the Am championship for Garage 75 after finishing third in class, enough to stay ahead of Setiawan Santoso and Liam Talbot, who claimed Am honors for EBM.
Attention now shifts to the season finale later on Sunday, with Lu Wei six points behind his Origine teammates Bob Yuan and Leo Ye. The pair were on course to wrap up back-to-back titles before a stop-go penalty dropped them out of the top 10. The same infringement cost JMR's Jefri Ibrahim valuable points, while a heavy crash caused by brake failure ended Phantom's hopes with Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci.
All 24 cars made it cleanly through Turn 1 at the start - a rare feat on a brand-new street circuit. Deng Yi led early for Harmony Racing ahead of teammate Zhang Yaqi, but chaos erupted when Anthony Liu's Porsche suffered a brake failure and plowed into the leading Ferrari during a Safety Car period, eliminating both cars.
The ensuing pit stops under yellow reshuffled the order. Yuan climbed from 11th to fourth and briefly looked set to clinch the championship, but both the Origine Porsche and JMR's Mercedes were later handed stop-go penalties for short pit stops. The same fate befell the FAW/Phantom Audi that had temporarily inherited the lead.
As others faltered, 5ZIGEN's Nissan emerged out front, though Kanamaru had to fend off Menzel's hard-charging Porsche in the closing laps. Behind them, KRC's BMW gained from a late clash between Absolute's Newman-liveried Porsche and Bastian Buus, who dropped to sixth behind Patrick Pilet and Wang Zhongwei. Alexander Sims and Abu Bakar Ibrahim claimed fifth in their JMR Corvette.
Lu Wei's penalty-reduced run to seventh trimmed his deficit to six points heading into the decider, while Daniel Lu's retirement handed Craft-Bamboo's Jeffrey Liang and Darryl O'Young a Silver class win and eighth overall. Their result keeps the FAW/Phantom Audi duo of Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai just 23 points clear with 25 available in the finale.
Two Am entries rounded out the top 10, with Santoso and Talbot beating Elegant Racing's Liu and Renger. Despite that win, Tjiptobiantoro and Colombo's consistency proved enough to retain the Am title. Enditem
