With dramas all around them in the first race of the 2025 China GT Championship, a dramatic opening race saw the winners over the line in race one – Climax Racing - penalised for overtaking under the safety car, handing victory to the Fist Team AAI BMW crew of Lin Yu and Erik Johansson. The season opener was entertaining from lights to flag with several safety car periods, rivals locked in various battles, plenty of intense duels and even spins throughout the race.

From pole position Elias Seppanen held on through the first corner in his Climax Racing Ferrari to control the early pace after an early challenge from the 610Racing Porsche of Zach Xu, with the field keeping it clean throughout the opening few corners. “Rio” would lose momentum and some positions on the opening tour and a slight error from David Chen on the final bend allowed Lin Yu in the BMW up to third position following a sluggish start for the squad. Elsewhere David Pun would drop to the back of the grid in his Audi.

It wouldn’t take long for drama as the #62 Porsche GTC class 610Racing car of Bao Tian slipped off the road and became beached on the kerb approaching the final sector, whilst at the same time the RSR GT Porsche of Tian Weiyuan tripped over an opponent and the car would stop at the penultimate turn at the end of the back straight with both incidents triggering the safety car.

On the restart, the order would remain the same in the top four, but at the end of the lap Dennis Zhang then suffered a mighty accident in his 33R Harmony Audi after losing control on the final corner. After initially managing to move away from the barriers, he would park his car on the pit exit just a few yards further on and so the safety car returned just minutes after its first appearance.

After a lengthy wait to go back to green, the race resumed with only 25 minutes remaining and so the pit stops began with urgency with the pit window adjusted to give teams the chance to make the mandatory stop under green flag conditions. The Fist Team AAI BMWS were busy making moves as Lin Yu and Chen Yinyu worked hard to move up to second and third respectively out of the Parabolica, the latter losing out again down to fifth in the braking zone for Turn 15. Zach Xu reacted to bring his Porsche in before the opposition to hand his car over to Cui Yue.

Two laps later and the remaining cars all pitted together, with the driver changes all completed. With Seppanen handing the Climax Ferrari to Chen Fangping in the lead, the team that had made the most progress was the Uno Audi with Chen Yechong now at the wheel having taken over from “Rio”, but the 610Racing Porsche managed to pass at the hairpin on its out-lap on fresh tyres. A mistake out of the final corner from the Origine Audi dropped the team behind both cars at the end of the lap with less than fifteen minutes left to the checkered flag, and despite an attempt to claim the place back from the Uno Audi on the next lap the team remained in dire straits.

Then disaster for the #91 FIST Team AAI BMW after a mistake caused them to drift wide  through the Parabolica and then receive a nudge from the Uno Audi causing a spin, but they were fortunate to avoid being struck by the opposition as they all had to take avoiding action. As the team rejoined, there were problems elsewhere for the #666 Racing by 33R Audi crew who were stuck in the gravel after a lapse in concentration which brought out the safety car for the third time.

With just four minutes to go, the race restarted and there were no issues for the leading Ferrari. Behind them there were many challenges for position, the most dramatic being between the 610Racing Porsche and the Origine Audi who were squeezing each other into various patches of gravel in their determination to complete the move. Their aggressive nature allowed the Uno Audi into play and on the next lap the #85 would split the cars with a strong move at the first bend. The final laps gave Chen Yinyu the chance to storm back through the pack and she pulled off some incredible overtakes in the closing stages to make up for the earlier spin.

It was a fairly easy end to the race for Chen Fangping who together with Elias Seppanen dominated the first outing of the season to take the overall victory and in Pro Am too, with the FIST Team AAI BMW of Lin Yu and Erik Johansson would fightback to second after their tricky start only half a second ahead of Origine who would pick up a third place finish with Lu Wei and Xie Xinzhe.

The Pro win was claimed by James Yu and Liu Kai Shun in the 610Racing #33 Audi and there was euphoria in the stands as Wang Yibo assisted by David Pun would claim the win in Am just outside the top six, whilst Shen Jian and Cao Qikuan clinched the Masters win in their Masters just inside the top ten.

610Racing and Maxmore W&S Motorsport would claim the wins in GTC and GTS respectfully after very eventful races in the lower categories.