It was drama right at the end when the Ferrari 458 of Mok Weng Sun and the then lead Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Jeffrey Lee/Alexandre Imperatori collided allowing Mok, who recovered earlier, to claim the GT Asia Series win today. The drivers faced adverse Japanese summer heat, some charting more than 50 degrees in the cockpit, at one of the hottest races ever in the Series at the famed Suzuka Circuit in Japan. Akihiro Asai started the race in Arrows Racing’s Lamborghini LP600 GT3, which he partnered with Billy Fung, from pole in perfect form. Maintaining the lead from the fast charging Imperatori right as the lights turned green during the rolling start. The duo pulled away from the pack and started their private battle at the head leaving a two second gap by the end of the first lap.
Behind them, Hisamori Hayashi in the Porsche 997 GT3R of Direction Racing, who started the race in third, was immediately overtaken by his teammate Hisao Shigeta in the second 997 GT3R and Mok. He was also followed closely by Li Zhi Cong in Asia Racing Team’s 997 GT3R who was thereafter kept busy by the fast Sri Lankan, Dilantha Malagamuwa in Dilango Racing’s Lamborghini LP560 GT3.
And just slightly further behind are two GT Master Class Porsche’s from Direction Racing with Tsukasa Fujita and You Yokomaku in a battle for their class win. But their positions changed at the pit-stop window with Yokomaku taking the class lead and keeping it all the way to the chequered flag. The pitstop window for the mandatory stop caused many changes to positions throughout the grid. It also caused Li, Jacky Yeung in the Lamborghini Gallardo, Christian Chia’s Ferrari 430 Modena and Hideki Onda in the Ferrari 458 Challenge time as they had to serve stop-go penalties for not completing their stops in the minimum stipulated time. Even the leading Lamborghini was not spared when Asai handed over to his partner, Fung who was given a drive though penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, dropping them down the order. Then as Fung tried to catch back up to the front, he made another error at the chicane, taking the wrong turn and cutting off Shigeta. The Porsche suffered suspension damage and ended his race there on lap 11 while Fung managed to recover to finish the race down the order in 17th.
At the same time, Malagamuwa received a black flag for failing to observe his mandatory pit-stop and was forced out of the race. Up ahead, the drama continued with Mok putting the pressure on Jeffrey Lee who took over driving duties from Imperatori. Lee held out strong before the last lap incident with Mok that cost him the win. Hisamori Hayashi, who managed a great pit-stop was then close behind them and benefitted from the incident, passing past Lee as he tried to recover at the Dunlop turn, to cross the line in second behind Mok, less than four seconds ahead of Lee.
GT Asia Series Round 8 will continue tomorrow, Sunday 19 August 2012 at 9.00am (local time) before the start of the Autobacs Super GT Round 5, 41st International Pokka 100km race.
