Origine sweeps Mandalika weekend in GTWC Asia

Different entries winning under different circumstances, but Origine Motorsport capitalized well from the first GT World Challenge Asia event held at the Mandalika International Circuit in Indonesia, with the No. 87 entry of Bob Yuan and Hongli Ye winning on Saturday, while the No. 4 Porsche 911 GT3R of Lu Wei and Alessio Picariello beat the opposition in the final moments of the second race on Sunday.
 
Race 1 started with the No. 45 FAW Audi quickly establishing dominance over the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes and the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari, which were the most immediate worries for Congfu Cheng as they are fellow Silver Cup entrants. Mandalika is a really wide track, but with the high pace that a GT3 can carry over a lap, it isn’t a place that allows too many mistakes.
 
Talking about mistakes, the circuit didn’t have mercy of the No. 44 Climax Mercedes as it had a fast trip to impact in the tire barriers due to rear grip loss at Turn 7, which eventually led to a full course yellow. The neutralization evolved into a Safety Car period and it was lifted with 38 minutes to go, with Danial Frost and Chen Weian not leaving any room to breathe for Congfu Cheng.
 
Due to a puncture that left the No. 55 Harmony Ferrari stranded on track, another full course yellow was called, so the frontrunners opted to take the mandatory pit stop out of the way as soon as possible, with very few cars staying on track, which gave a momentary lead to the No. 46 FAW Audi, and once the pit window, success penalties and the Safety Car were out of the way, the No. 87 Origine Porsche was leading overall and in the Pro-Am Cup, with the No. 2 Climax Mercedes behind them being busy defending from the No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche.
 
The gap between Hongli Ye and Ralf Aron was kept stable, so the No. 2 Climax Mercedes never had any chance of chasing the No. 87 Origine Porsche, as Ye just brought the car home with the overall and Pro-Am Cup wins.
 
GTWC Asia - Mandalika Race 1 results
 
Completing the overall top 5, the No. 96 Harmony Ferrari outpaced the initial competition to take Silver Cup honors, while the No. 89 KRC BMW won the Silver-Am Cup with ease while splitting the Silver Cup podium. The Am Cup winner would only appear at the bottom of the best 25 cars overall, as the No. 30 Elegant Mercedes had some comfortable cushion to the No. 75 Garage 75 Ferrari.
 

The No. 55 Harmony Ferrari that retired on Saturday started in the front row on Sunday, only to be gobbled by the field while the No. 31 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes took the lead from the No. 500 5ZIGEN Nissan, recovering its original position. Jayden Ojeda then started to open a gap as Yu Kanamaru got busy with the No. 37 Phantom Global Porsche and the No. 98 Absolute Ferrari, though the battle was momentary as the Safety Car was called due to a multi-car incident that knocked out the No. 86 Origine Porsche and the No. 46 FAW Audi.
 
After the pit window, the No. 31 had a comfortable gap to the No. 500 as Motoki had the No. 4 Origine Porsche all over him, but the situation quickly changed as the No. 31 got a stop and go penalty due to minimum pit time infringement, which gave more than enough time for the No. 500 to take the overall lead, all while the No. 4 had the No. 37 all over it, with Wei Lu and Anthony Liu too busy on their own matters to attack the Nissan.
 
With 10 minutes to go, the No. 30 Elegant Mercedes got beached in the gravel and triggered a full course yellow, and even though the car was already being removed, the Safety Car was called with five minutes to go, but a lap later the green flag was waved, and a slow reaction from Motoki left the door open for Lu and Liu to go past him, leaving the Porsches in their own battle for overall and Pro-Am Cup honors.
 
In the end, Liu went wide and he wasn’t able to regain terrain to attack Lu, so the No. 4 Origine Porsche just had to be brought home in the final lap to confirm the overall and Pro-Am Cup wins.
 
GTWC Asia - Mandalika Race 2 results
 
The No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes completed the overall podium and won the Silver Cup, and behind them in fourth, the No. 89 KRC BMW completed the Silver-Am Cup sweep. Just inside the overall top 20, the No. 8 EBM Mercedes got Am Cup honors without issues.
 
Yuan and Ye (No. 87) hold the lead with 68 points while Liu and Boccolacci (No. 37) sit in second with 59 points, and in third, Ruan Cun Fan and Maxime Oosten (No. 89) have 49 points scored. The series moves to the Chang International Circuit, with the Buriram double being held on 31 May and 1 June.
 
PHOTOS: SRO