Tricky conditions across a tough weekend at the Zhuhai circuit saw the championship leading FIST AAI BMW crew consolidate with a pair of podium finishes in bombastic fashion, with two races that saw multiple leaders, a catalogue of chaos and some daring performances. But a win apiece for Harmony Racing and 610Racing proved that the car to have on the day was the Audi GT3, the machine that coped the best in difficult circumstances.
The opening race started behind the safety car due to the treacherous conditions, the biggest concern for the officials being the variation in grip levels – the track was damp but not fully wet which would cause many problems for teams. Nobody really knew if slicks or wets would be the correct choice of tyres in the conditions. When the race began in earnest, the pole-sitting Ferrari of Chen Fangping would lead the field initially with the dominant force of the opening half of the season FIST AAI BMW trapped in third position behind the 610Racing Porsche.
At the end of the first racing lap, the final corner caught out first Bian Ye in the BMW and then seconds later the Audi of Jason Gu. Whilst this was occurring, Xu Zhefeng stepped up the attack and made his move on Chen in the leading Ferrari which had run wide at Turn One, allowing Lin Yu the chance to make his own bid in the championship leading BMW. But the two spins at the final corner meant the safety car would return. As it emerged the Climax Racing Ferrari would make a spitstop before the pit window with a technical problem, emerging from the pits at the back of the field.
Dramatically the FIST AAI BMW #90 would also pit under the safety car which would inevitably drop the championship leaders to the back of the pack. So when the race resumed it would be their sister car driven by William Alatalo that would grab the lead halfway round the first green flag lap, with Harmony Racing’s Dennis Zhang managing to overtake the 610Racing Porsche as well in a sensational move around the outside of the final corner. In these conditions, the Audis seemed to have better balance and it wasn’t long before Yang Baije had also moved ahead of Xu’s Porsche.
Then with half an hour remaining the rain intensified, which prompted the 610Racing crew to call in Xu who was in danger of being passed by Li Hanyu’s Huracan and the Mercedes of Lu Wei, the two men eventually battling between each other as the rain plummeted down. The pitlane became a frenzy of GT3 machinery, as everyone flew to the pits to change for rain tyres just inside the pit window.
The safety car would be called again to bunch up the field and slow down the pace with the circuit now torrentrial. Once the shuffle of the pitlane had been completed it was now the #50 Audi at the helm with Liu Kai Shun now driving forward. The 610Racing teams from the GT3AM class were now incredibly second and third respectively although the #666 car driven by Liu Hangcheng and Lu Zhiwei was given a drivethrough penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Bao Tian added insult to injury by stealing third place from them in his Audi.
Sadly the Climax Ferrari retreated to the pits clearly with more difficulties. But then dramatically Bao Tian lost control and beached the Audi in the gravel trap, bringing out the safety car for the third and final time. This bunched the field up once more and gave us a thrilling two lap showdown between Harmony Racing Audi and the Origine Mercedes as the hard charging #55 crew were now into second place.
When the green flag dropped, the pair would run side by side for almost half a lap in the monsoon conditions thrilling the crowd with their daring and skill, at one point the Mercedes of Xie Xinzhe stealing the lead, only for Liu Kai Shun to grasp it back going into the final lap. With incredibly brave moves in defence the Harmony Racing Audi crew would hold on to grab the race one victory ahead of the Mercedes, whilst the FIST AAI BMW made an audacious charge through the pack to steal third position on the last lap. Harmony Racing also scored a win in GT3AM with the 33R crew ahead of 610Racing, whilst Moritz Berrenberg secured the win in GTS for Maxmore W&S.
The second race couldn’t have been more different as the start was taken in dry conditions as a traditional rolling start, albeit with some wet patches around the circuit. Origine led Harmony in the opening lap in a reverse of the finishing order from race one, but the terrible weekend for the Climax Ferrari continued after being pitched into a spin on the opening chicane and then being collected by their original assailants in the #66 Audi putting the Ferrari crew out of the race on lap one.
Then the 610Racing Porsche dramatically exited the race at the first corner with what appeared to be a brake failure. The safety car would be called as the Porsche needed to be extracted, but on the restart the #77 Audi made up for its blunder in race one by storming up to P4 behind Li Hanyu and Ou Ziyang in their Lamborghini. The FIST AAI BMWs had a brief battle in which the championship leading car moved ahead, which in turn put Betty Chen into defence mode having to work hard to keep the others at bay.
The #77 Audi of Min Heng finally moved ahead of the Lamborghini for P3, but there was trouble brewing. First Gan Erfu brought his Porsche to a halt on the circuit, and then the Lamborghini #2 of Li Sicheng lost control of his car violently and beeched the car in the gravel. At exactly the same time, Bao Tian blotted his copybook by spinning the Audi in exactly the same place as he had done in race one, and again he was stuck in the gravel trap. It was the perfect timing for the pitstops and so as a full course caution period was called, the teams swung into action over three consecutive laps. The safety car was then later called to neutralise the field.
The Origine Mercedes held its lead through the pitstop cycle, so when the race resumed they picked up the advantage. It was time for yet another comeback drive for the FIST AAI BMW and despite light contact in the first corner the #90 team were now up to P6, but the sister team was now hit with a drivethrough penalty for a pitstop time shorter than the regulations, which ended their chances of a podium finish.
The car on the move was now the #915 Audi as Pan Deng was sweeping allcomers left right and centre in his bid to push the car back into the top six. With ten minutes to go, the Mercedes driven by Shen Jian pirouetted and eventually recovered. Meanwhile the battle for second position was now intense with six cars fighting for supremacy. Yang Baije managed to steal second position for himself just in time for the safety car to be called again, this time for the #666 Audi of Liu Hangcheng and Liu Zhiwei.
On the restart, it would be heartbreak for the Origine Mercedes that had led the whole race as a mechnacial problem cost them the win and the car spluttered to a crawl on the home straight, allowing his opponents to sweep by. It allowed the #33 Audi of Yang Biaje and Peter Li to retake the lead ahead of the championship leading FIST AAI BMW. Seconds later and Jason Gu would be facing the wrong way after a collision trying to avoid the spun #6 BMW of Bian Ye.
This crazy turn of events would allow the #33 610Racing Audi to cruise to victory unchallenged with the #90 FIST AAI BMW in second ahead of the race one winning Harmony Racing Audi. DIXCEL by Gaha stunned the paddock by grabbing the win in GT3Am with Li Hanyu and Ou Ziyang, whilst this time Team KRC snatched an unlikely victory in GTC after one of the craziest weekend’s in the championship’s history.
