Maiden GT Asia Series victory for Lamborghini Huracan

Unpredictable and outstanding racing right through the field have been hallmarks of the 2016 GT Asia Series season to date, and round eight at Fuji International Speedway proved to be no different, delivering the sixth different winning combination of the year, after Italians Andrea Amici and Edoardo Liberati took the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to its maiden victory in Asia.

Behind them an intense battle played out for the remaining podium positions, with Bentley’s South Korean stars Keita Sawa and Jonathan Venter forging their way through on team-mates Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak and Duncan Tappy in the closing stages for second, whilst the fastest man at Fuji - Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Richard Lyons - turned in an epic drive to work his way back onto the podium for the second time in two days.

The big news for the fans ahead of the start of Sunday’s second race though was the return of the BBT Ferrari which had suffered a technical failure in race one, the Chinese team provided a life-line by rivals Clearwater Racing who completed their 2016 season one race early, making a selfless move by electing to donate the engine from the #3 car to the #37 team so they could continue their battle for the title.

The BBT Ferrari duo may not have made the podium after starting rear of field, but their eighth placed finish has kept them right in the title chase heading ‘home’ to Shanghai next round (19-21 August), the result also putting team-leader Anthony Liu back on top of the hotly contested Pro-Am Cup standings.

What the drivers had to say...

1. Andrea Amici (#55 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3)

“This is a really great result for all the guys in the team, it’s a result that comes because of the help we get from Lamborghini who assist us with everything we need. We were not so fast on the straight, but we had the best handling car in the technical parts of the circuit. Sawa stayed with me for the first few laps, then I just pushed and tried to stay consistent to get the car to Edo to complete the race.”


1. Edoardo Liberati (#55 FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3)
: “It was really intense, especially when you have such fast cars coming behind you, you have to keep the focus and concentration not to make any mistakes. I was also focusing on not using a lot of the tyre to make sure we could get through to the finish and have some in reserve just in case. We’re very happy with the result, Andrea and I don’t know many of these Asian circuits, so we don’t have previous experience, but coming into this race, both of us had only done three laps here in the dry, so thanks to YouTube which gave us some information from onboards to use and to the laps we could do on the simulator.”

2. Keita Sawa (#8 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
: “It’s nice to be back on the podium again, the first since our two wins in South Korea. It wasn’t all easy, I had a problem right from the start with the splitter on the front, which I had to deal with all through my stint, so I didn’t push too hard until I knew it wasn’t a problem. Finishing second, especially as Fuji is my home circuit, is enough to make me very happy.”

2. Jonathan Venter (#8 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3)
: “It was a really difficult race actually. I knew before I got in the car that the splitter was broken, so I knew that would affect the time a little bit. My out lap was a bit strange, I had a big lockup into turn one, which is strange in a GT3 when you have ABS, but the issue continued throughout the stint. As a result Duncan [Tappy] got past, but once I got into a rhythm I caught him again and wanted to get past as quickly as I could to try and catch the Lamborghini, but it was pretty clear they had great outright pace and consistency. Overall I’m pretty happy with second after the previous bad luck with the four rounds. This is good for the championship and good for the morale of the team.”

3. Frank Yu (#88 Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R): 
“I started from the left and knew immediately I was going to get pushed off, so I lost a couple of positions there, then the rest of the race was quite fun between me and my team-mate Toy Bhirombhakdi and Andrew Kim in the Bentley, so the three of us had a pretty good battle. Today we ran a revised setup, the car felt really good, I think we have found something in the car that will give us some consistency and speed across the rest of the season. We’re not there yet, but we’re not far away. Today though this race belonged to Richard [Lyons] he drove brilliantly.”

3. Richard Lyons (#88 Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R): 
“It wasn’t easy, so to do a 35-minute qualifying run was tough going, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. Frank set this up for us, because the move he put on the VLT car [Toy Bhirombhakdi] was absolutely amazing - what it meant was that we didn’t have to do an extra lap, because we didn’t want to stop the two cars in the pits together, and when that happened, I thought, yes, the race is on now! The car was fantastic, even on cold tyres, so I kept chipping away at the cars in front of me over the next few laps, and I could see more cars ahead, so wondered how many I needed to overtake to get to the podium. I asked my engineer not to say much today, but two laps from home he said the next car ahead of me was for the podium, so I gave it a good go.”

GT Asia Series - Fuji International Speedway, Japan (17 July)

Race#2 (60-minutes)

1. 55. Amici/Liberati (FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) - 34-laps

2. 8. Sawa/Venter (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +9.976
3. 88. Yu/Lyons (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +16.737
4. 9. Inthraphuvasak/Tappy (Absolute Bentley Continental GT3) +19.247
5. 95. Walsh/Miedecke (Miedecke Stone Aston Martin Vantage) +20.860
6. 6. Au/Yoong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +28.515
7. 12. Bhirombhakdi/Van Dam (Singha Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3) +29.441
8. 37. Liu/Rizzo (BBT Ferrari 488 GT3) +35.403
9. 91. Bhirombakdi/O’Young (Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche GT3-R) +36.487
10. 98. Ma/Sugden (GruppeM Racing Porsche GT3-R) +51.832
11. 5. Lee/Thong (Phoenix Racing Asia Audi R8 LMS GT3) +52.643
12. 7. Kim/Fong (Absolute Racing Bentley Continental GT3) +1:00.696
13. 59. Bhirombhakdi/Kisiri (Singha Plan-B Motorsport Ferrari 458 Chall.) - 33-laps
14. 73. Ueda/Funai (Team Naoryu Age Age Racing Ferrari 458 Chall.)
15. 17. Seto/Asai (Team Rosso Scuderia Ferrari 458 Chall.) - 30-laps
DNS. 3. Wee/Mok (Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3)


GT3 Championship points (after eight rounds of 12)

1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (94-points), 3. Anthony Liu/Davide Rizzo (85), 5. Marchy Lee/Shaun Thong, Adderly Fong/Andrew Kim (75), 9. Piti Bhirombhakdi/Carlo Van Dam (71), 11. Jonathan Venter (68), 12. Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (66), 13. Keita Sawa (61), 14. Alex Yoong/Alex Au (58), 16. Duncan Tappy (51), 17. Frank Yu/Richard Lyons (50), 19. Tim Sugden (46), 20. Darryl O’Young/Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (41), 22. Mok Weng Sun (28), 23. Jono Lester (22), 24. George Miedecke (18), 25. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 26. George Richardson (14), 27. Ashley Walsh, Franky Cheng/JingZu Sun, Richard Wee (13), 31. Philip Ma (10), 32. Andrew Palmer (8), 33. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 35. Nathan Morcom (5)

Pro-Am Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)

1. Anthony Liu (96-points), 2. Shaun Thong (95), 3. Piti Bhirombhakdi (89), 4. Andrew Kim (85), 5. Alex Au, Vutthikorn Inthrapuvasak (76), 7. Frank Yu (63), 8. Naiyanobh Bhirombhakdi (58), 9. Philip Ma (25), 10. Mok Weng Sun (17), 11. JingZu Sun (16)

Pro Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)

1. Edoardo Liberati/Andrea Amici (94-points), 3. Davide Rizzo (85), 4. Adderly Fong, Marchy Lee (75), 6. Carlo Van Dam (71), 7. Jonathan Venter (68), 8. Keita Sawa (61), 9. Alex Yoong (58), 10. Tim Sugden (52), 11. Duncan Tappy (51), 12. Richard Lyons (50), 13. Darryl O’Young (42), 14. Jono Lester (22), 15. George Miedecke (17), 16. Gianmaria Bruni (15), 17. George Richardson (14), 18. Ash Walsh, Franky Cheng (13), 20. Andrew Palmer (8), 21. Christer Jöns, Fabian Hamprecht (7), 23. Nathan Morcom (4)

GT Cup points (after eight rounds of 12)

1. Kantasak Kusiri/Bhurit Bhirombhakdi (102-points), 3. Voravud Bhirombhakdi/Tin Sritra (34), 5. Aekrat Discharoen, Toshihito Funai/Masayuki Ueda (32), 8. Akihiro Asai/Ken Seto (28), 10. Suttiluck Buncharoen, (16)

GT Asia Series