A stunning display of racing, two epic encounters and a nailbiting race to the line where all part of the phenomenal second weekend of the 2025 China GT Championship presented by Top Speed. The dominant run of FIST Team AAI was finally halted during the meeting but not before thrills, spills and a lot of drama from the two contests in Shanghai.

The first race kicked off with drama before the start as Elias Seppanen’s Ferrari spluttered to a halt on the formation lap just a few corners after the start-line which aborted the start. On the start, Erik Johansson continued his incredible form from Round 1 as he worked the FIST Team AAI BMW off the rolling start effortlessly to slot into second behind pole sitter Andy Deng in the Winhere Harmony Audi, whilst the other BMW ace Ugo De Wilde made a sensational start too as he moved his own FIST AAI car into third position.

A disastrous spin for Xie Xinzhe put the Origine Motorsport Mercedes down the order from what had been P5 on the second lap, whilst Jason Gu was able to put the move on Liu Hangcheng in the “Garfield” Ferrari from 33R Harmony to grab third in the GT3Am class early on. It’s sister car - the Audi - started to slow in the hands of Jiang Nan just as the pitstop window approached.

De Wilde then lost out to Daniel Lu’s 610Racing Audi #33 as Tian Weiyuan in the Porsche accidentally baulked the battle for P2 in GT3 ProAm and then dramatically spun in front of the 33R Harmony Ferrari just a couple of laps later at the exact moment the pitstop window opened. Incipient Racing were in more trouble as they pitted, but wouldn’t return after damage sustained on track.

The Origine day went from bad to worse as the #55 Mercedes stalled during its pitstop, whilst the #90 BMW now driven by Huang Ruohan managed to jump the #37 Audi of Luo Kailuo for the lead, but the 610Racing Audi of Yang Baijie came out ahead of them all, triggering an investigation into the pitstop duration. The timing of it all was perfect initially for the squad, as it had occured just as a full course yellow slowed the pace of the race. It was the #6 610Racing Audi that had crashed out on its outlap, burying itself in the tyre barriers which would eventually trigger the safety car. Fortunately the driver Lang Jiru was unhurt and able to return to the paddock without incident.

On the restart, it took a matter of seconds for Huang to launch into the lead in the BMW to setup a hat-trick of victories for the #90 crew, with Chen Yechong in the #90 Audi who had taken over from ‘Rio’ and the former leaders in the #37 now piloted by Luo surging ahead in the following corners. It was a little harder for Betty Chen to repeat the feat in her #91PA BMW which meant that Min Heng found the gap on the inside line to pass her instead in the #77 Audi. By the end of the lap Luo had caught and passed Chen for second position. It was clear that the #33 610Racing Audi was in all sorts of problems as it quickly lost four more positions as the lap ended and then received a 1.3 second penalty for a pitstop infringement as expected.

Then a spectacular move around the outside of Betty Chen saw Lu Wei move ahead in the Origine Mercedes after an impeccable recovery drive. Dramatically Min Heng would spin the car around out of the horseshoe with just two laps remaining, whilst the lead in GTC was now under the gaze of the stewards as 610Racing #62 driven by Bao Junbin was now under investigation as well – this time for overtaking under the safety car before the restart line.

The final lap showed the raw pace of the #37 Audi as Luo caught rapidly towards Huang in the lead, and then incredibly we were treated to one of the closest finishes in the championship’s history as the FIST Team AAI BMW was just able to keep the lead out of the final turn by just 0.051 seconds. Lu Wei brought the Origine car back to an astonishing third place ahead of Chen and ‘Rio’ in the #98 UNO Racing Audi. 33R Harmony picked up the GT3Am win in their ‘Garfield’ Ferrari in P5.

Maxmore W&S Motorsport bagged the highly competitive win in GTS whilst 610Racing would indeed be penalised handing the GTC victory to Jack Pang and Li Sicheng for ACM by Blackjack.

Next morning, and another pole position for the Winhere Harmony Audi for race two would become the lead despite the best efforts of FIST Team AAI driver Huang Ruohan to move ahead around the outside. There would be strong battles from the outset and of course all eyes were on the Climax Racing Ferrari who needed a result after their non-start in race one – fortunately they were already in the top ten.

The first spin came from the #98 Audi as Chen Yechong found the limits a little too early, rejoining at the tail of the pack without triggering a safety car. Climax moved up into P7 as they passed the #328 Lamborghini driven by Ou Ziyang, whilst the GTC duel between Han Liqun in the #977 Porsche of RSR GT Racing and its rival car from Incipient Racing driven by Che Shaoyi traded paint in sector two but somehow avoided a monumental accident.

Then Zhen Mingwei dropped the #666 Audi and recovered to the back of the field in a similar manner to Chen, whilst Bao Tian would face the wrath of the officials after being issued with a 5 second time penalty served at the pitstop for a false start. This would almost certainly hand the lead back to the ACM by Blackjack crew again unless luck played in their favour in the second half of the race. Team TRC would also rejoin after a small spin for Fok Wai Ming under braking whilst being lapped, tapping the #88 Level Motorsports Mercedes as it lost control.

Then just a lap later the #88 would be involved in a collision with Yang Biajie as driver Jiang Jiawei couldn’t react in time to the move under braking from his opponent and they clattered into each other at turn 7. The Audi would stop out on the circuit in the next corner, and the Mercedes would limp back to the pits with a broken front bonnet. It brought out full course yellows just as the FIST Team AAI BMW of Betty Chen had pitted, handing the car to Ugo De Wilde at an unfortunate moment that would cost the team time. 

All the big players used the full course yellow to swap drivers and took their mandatory pitstops while the pace was reduced, as Erik Johansson and Andy Deng would now return to their machines for the second half of the race. Attempts to move the stricken 610Racing Audi were difficult enough to bring out the safety car, whilst at the same time the Inicipient Audi #69 of Air Tong Yu was trying to decide whether to retire the car or not with problems clearly rife in the pink machine. The car would eventually give up for good on the backstraight before the restart.

As the race resumed, Deng launched clear in the Winhere Harmony Audi whilst Johansson took up the chase in second in the FIST AAI BMW, whilst his team-mate Ugo De Wilde in the other BMW was finding it unusually treacherous dueling with the Audis of UNO Racing and 610Racing with the #915 crew. Despite front splitter damage, DIXCEL Racing with their Lamborghini were enjoying a terrific dogfight with the Mercedes of Shek Jian, but De Wilde had run out of patience and stormed ahead of two rivals in the hairpin at the end of the backstraight to move up into P9 – easily one of the moves of the weekend.

The closing minutes would be focused on the duel between Deng and Johansson as the FIST AAI BMW crew were chasing a 100% victory rate from the first two rounds. Incredibly their contest went down to the final lap again, whilst Climax Racing were biddng for third in their own battle against Origine Motorsport also down to the wire. But try as he might Johansson couldn’t quite force the overtake and so Winhere Harmony Racing became the team to break the FIST AAI winning streak. Origine held off the Climax Racing Ferrari for third position, with Jason Gu and Min Heng sealing the win in GT3AM in the #77 Origine Audi. Pang and Li made it a double triumph for ACM by Blackjack in GTC whilst Moritz Berrenberg gave Maxmore W&S Motorsport a pair of victories as well in the GTS category.

After two fantastic weekends in Shanghai, the championship now heads to the city of Guangdong where lies the Zhuhai International Circuit – China’s first permanent race circuit celebrating its thirtieth year of racing. The races will be held on the third weekend of June before the season finale in September. The second half of the season will certainly be close and exciting, if the two weekends in Shanghai are anything to go by!