The Porsches justified their good position in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia by having another consistent weekend at Suzuka, with the new 911 GT3R being a race winner with Absolute Racing and by filling the podium when the CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes won Race 2.
The green flag in Race 1 had an all-Absolute Racing front row making a barrier into Turn 1 to hold positions, with the No. 12 Audi having the advantage while the No. 911 Porsche had to hold all the pressure, starting with the third placed No. 99 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes.
Near the pit window, the No. 12 had a puncture, which promoted the No. 911 Porsche to the lead, with a seven second gap to the No. 99 Mercedes. Pitting early just improved what was good for the No. 911 Porsche, now being at least 11 seconds ahead of the competition.
While things in the GT3 side seemed settled, the dominating No. 81 Studie BMW had the GT4 lead threatened by the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes, with the incoming GT3 traffic helping the Japanese team to open a gap. Eventually the No. 77 passed for the lead, but as this also resulted in contact, Jean-Marc Merlin gave the position back, at least until a right rear puncture forced the BMW M4 GT4 to go into the pits, with the Mercedes AMG GT4 eventually receiving a drive through because of the contact. With all that happened in GT4, the class lead was given to the No. 111 iRace.Win Mercedes, to hold it until the finish line.
Further ahead, Absolute Racing was in command in GT3 with their pair of Porsches, with the No. 911 car just keeping a decent pace to secure victory, while the No. 912 car tried to reduce the gap without success, having to settle for second and complete the 1-2. ARN Racing completed an all-Porsche overall podium by coming home third with the No. 8 car, winner of the Pro-Am Cup.
The debuting No. 60 LM Corsa Porsche commanded the Am Cup, giving no chance to the No. 51 AMAC Lamborghini in the gentleman driver class.
Race 2 had CRAFT Bamboo and AAS Panther in front, and the No. 88 Mercedes took the lead and left the No. 918 Porsche to deal with the rest of the field.
Despite having the No. 918 around during the whole first half, the No. 88 Mercedes held the top position quite well in a not so eventful race until that point. Unlike the leading pack in Race 1, the Race 2 front runners decided to use the late part of the pit window to stop, and the No. 88 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes remained in the lead.
The Safety Car that came with 20 minutes to go opened an opportunity for the No. 918 AAS Panther Porsche to go after the lead, and the worries surrounded the No. 88 Mercedes much more as a second Safety Car visit came with the No. 666 VSR Lamborghini beached in the gravel.
The No. 918 Porsche had only five minutes to attack or settle for second and defend the position, and in fact the guard failed with so many cars pressing it, as the No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari took second place and chased the No. 88 Mercedes. Failing in the offensive would mean having an open guard in the front pack, and after overshooting the final chicane by doing a late lunge, the No. 27 went down to fourth and the No. 918 went back to second, but with a rock solid defence, Jeffrey Lee held the lead and the win for the No. 88 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes, which also won the Pro-Am Cup.
The third placed No. 911 Absolute Porsche won the Silver Cup while the No. 128 Vattana Lamborghini won the Am Cup. In GT4, the honors went again to the No. 81 Studie BMW, with driver Sunako Jukuchou labeling the race as easy for them.
Philip Hamprecht and Tanart Sathienthirakul lead the standings with 88 points against 77 of Yuya Sakamoto and 71 Roelof Bruins and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak. Between the teams, Absolute Racing leads comfortably with 185 points against 81 from CRAFT Bamboo.
The trip to Japan continues with the next event being at Fuji Speedway, on July 6th and 7th.
PHOTOS - SRO
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