HubAuto and FFF Racing capitalized a lot in their wins of the two Blancpain GT Series Asia races at Shanghai, with HubAuto having it easier in Race 1 with the No. 27 Ferrari while the No. 19 Lamborghini did a hard charge from third to win the Race 2.
Once the green flag in Race 1 was waved Dennis Lind in the No. 19 FFF Lamborghini was caught napping and the No. 6 Absolute Audi, though a lisght contact sent the Audi spinning. Further complications at the start came with the No. Phoenix Bentley spun and the first Safety Car intervention came in, last near 10 minutes.
Lind led the way at the restart but the No. 19 was in the stewards watch due to the earlier contact, which in fact resulted in a drive through penalty, which pretty much handed the lead to a lone No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari as Jono Lester was opening the gap to the No. 991 CRAFT Bamboo Porsche which was holding the pace of the pack, at least until Edoardo Liberati in the No. 23 KCMG Nissan passed the No. 991 on pure pace despite being at the twisty initial sector of the Shanghai Circuit.
The No. 27 kept the lead after the pit window, while the No. 23 saw the No. 37 Absolute Audi go past for second, with the No. 991 CRAFT Bamboo Porsche, the No. 7 Absolute Audi and the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini just kept going and sent the No. 23 to sixth place. The pack still saw some action as the No. 991 was passed by the No. 7 and the No. 63 and fell to fifth.
After the GT4 lead has shifted between the No. 81 Studie BMW and the No. 11 TTR SARD Porsche, the No. 666 GruppeM Mercedes took it and extended the gap, with the same happening in the GT3s with the No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari, and with no threats on their ways it was just a matter of cruising to the checkered flag.
On Race 2 again the FFF Racing Lamborghinis had a slow start, so the No. 888 GruppeM Mercedes jumped to first while the No. 63 FFF Lamborghini was in second and the No. 18 KCMG Nissan. Some big names had their dramas while in the first lap, like the No. 5 Phoenix Bentley, the No. 86 OD WRT Audi and the No. 72 iRace.win Mercedes GT4, sending them straight to the pits or even to retirement.
Raffaele Marciello tried to maximize his drive time to hold Marco Mapelli and keep things as they are after the pit window, and so it was when the No. 888 and the No. 63 returned to the track. The No. 19 FFF Lamborghini also came to the fight, closing in more and more, effectivelly passing the sister No. 63 car as it run out of passing chances with 4 minutes to go.
Then the No. 19 started the attack, but neither of the Lamborghinis could get past the Mercedes. It would be a successful defense for the No. 888 if the car hadn’t spun with 2 minutes to go, which left the door totally opened for the FFF Racing 1-2 with the Silver Cup and Pro-Am class wins for the No. 19 and the No. 63, and the No. 888 was still able to salvage a third place overall.
The No. 81 Studie BMW won the GT4 class after initially having to hold the No. 666 GruppeM Mercedes, though then it turned into an easy race for the Japanese squad.
The next double header will be the final one of the 2018 season, on October 13th and 14th at Ningbo in China, with most of the titles up for grabs, with only Takuya Shirasaka and Naoto Takeda from KCMG leaving Shanghai with silverware as they already got the GT3 Am Cup title.
PHOTOS: SRO
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