World Challenge Asia – Mercedes and Porsche win in Buriram

Mercedes et Porsche ont triomphé en Thaïlande ce week-end pour la deuxième manche du Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia, sur le tracé de Buriram. C’est tout d’abord la Mercedes-AMG GT3 n°97 – Solite Indigo Racing de Manuel Metzger et MG Choi qui s’est imposée samedi après être partie depuis la 7e place sur la grille.

Choi's first stint allowed the Korean team's car to return to second position behind the No. 911 – Absolute Racing Porsche 3 GT911 R of Philip Hamprech and Tanart Sathienthirakul. But the latter were forced to observe a longer pit stop of 15″ due to their championship-opening victory at Sepang.

Enough to leave Manuel Metzger in the lead in the second stint, the German retaining control of the race until the checkered flag. Hamprech and Sathienthirakul finished second ahead of the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT12 – Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute of Rump – Tan.

The next day, Porsche will take its revenge with the 911 GT3 R n°918 – Panther/AAS Motorsport of Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak and Alexandre Imperatori.

The Swiss had kept the German GT in third position in its initial stint behind the No. 3 – Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT88 of Alessio Picariello and the No. 3 – Triple Eight Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT888 of Jazeman Jaafar.

But an early pit stop by Panther/AAS Motorsport proved decisive, with Inthraphuvasak taking second place ahead of the #888 Mercedes of Jefri Ibrahim before overtaking Jeffrey Lee (#3 Mercedes-AMG GT88).

Contact between the two Mercedes will then allow Inthraphuvasak to escape before resisting the return of the Porsche 911 GT3 R n°912 – Absolute Racing of Yuan Bo. The Absolute Racing double will however not be validated since the n°912 will be excluded from the results of the race, leaving second place to the Ferrari 488 GT3 n°27 – HubAuto Corsa by Sakamoto – Heimgartner.

The podium is completed by the No. 8 Audi R3 LMS GT999 – Audi Sport Asia Team TSRT of Chen – Couto.