BAMBER LAYS DOWN FIA GT WORLD CUP CHALLENGE

Le Mans 24 Hour winner Earl Bamber has laid down a Porsche challenge to the works Audi and Mercedes-Benz teams by claiming fastest time on the last lap of opening practice for the FIA GT World Cup at the Macau GP.

Bamber (Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R 991) claimed first practice honours with a time of 2min19.253secs just moments before the end of the first session.

The works Audi team of three times Macau winner Eduardo Montara and Laurens Vanthoor which had dominated the majority of the session were the only other cars under the 2min 20 second barrier , Mortara on 2min 19.492 and his team mate 0.2 seconds behind.

The works Mercedes-Benz AMG team in vehicles new to the circuit lost time in the fast first sector of the difficult 6.1 km road circuit, but were highly competitive across the tight hill-side section.

Defending FIA GT World Cup chamnpion Maro Engel was sixth fastest behind the first of the non-manufacturer entries, the Porsche 991 of British driver Richard Lyons.

New Zealander Bamber was delighted with his result.

« It was my first time in the new 991 Porsche and I’d expected to have to work into bot hit and the track, » he said.

«But it was immediately driveable and when there was no traffic to baulk me on the last lap of practice the time came naturally ».

Practice was momentarily halted when Hong Kong driver Adderly Fong lightly crashed his Bentley Continental GT3 but was stranded mid-track and had to be lifted off the circuit by crane as a traffic jam of competing cars queued behind him.

Fong was fourth fastest of the non-manufacturer entries.

SJM Macau GT Cup – FIA GT World Cup
Practice 1 – Classification TIMING BULLETIN 022
POS NO CLS DRIVER / TEAM NAT CAR TIME ON LAPS GAP DIFF KM /H
1 911 M Earl Bamber NZL Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:19.253 12 12 158.22
Manthey Racing
2 7 M Edoardo Mortara ITA Audi R8 LMS 2:19.492 6 11 0.239 0.239 157.94
Audi Sport Team WRT
3 8 M Laurens Vanthoor BEL Audi R8 LMS 2:19.682 8 11 0.429 0.190 157.73
Audi Sport Team WRT
4 912 M Kévin Estre FRA Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:20.078 13 13 0.825 0.396 157.28
Manthey Racing
5 88 Richard Lyons GBR Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:20.358 10 10 1.105 0.280 156.97
Craft Bamboo Racing
6 1 M Maro Engel DEU Mercedes AMG GT3 2:20.687 9 11 1.434 0.329 156.60
Mercedes-AMG Driv ing Academy
7 99 Darryl O’Young HKG Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:20.719 9 11 1.466 0.032 156.57
Craft Bamboo Racing
8 15 Nico Müller CHE Audi R8 LMS 2:21.756 12 12 2.503 1.037 155.42
Phoenix Racing
9 2 M Renger Van Der Zande NLD Mercedes AMG GT3 2:21.856 9 9 2.603 0.100 155.31
Mercedes-AMG Driv ing Academy
10 10 Adderly Fong HKG Bentley Continental GT3 2:21.935 5 5 2.682 0.079 155.23
Bentley Team Absolute
11 5 M Mirko Bortolotti ITA Lam borghini Huracán GT3 2:21.963 13 13 2.710 0.028 155.20
FFF Racing
12 11 CHENG Congfu CHN Audi R8 LMS 2:22.002 12 12 2.749 0.039 155.15
Absolute Racing
13 50 Pasin Lathouras THA Ferrari 488 GT3 2:22.240 10 11 2.987 0.238 154.89
Spirit of Race SA
14 16 LEE Marchy HKG Audi R8 LMS 2:22.463 10 11 3.210 0.223 154.65
Audi Hong Kong
15 28 Fabian Plentz DEU Audi R8 LMS 2:22.931 10 11 3.678 0.468 154.14
Team HCB-Rutronik-Racing
16 55 M André Couto MAC Lam borghini Huracán GT3 2:23.950 8 9 4.697 1.019 153.05
FFF Racing
17 9 Nicky Catsburg NLD BMW F13 M6 GT3 2:24.866 12 12 5.613 0.916 152.09
Rowe Racing
18 89 Hiroki Yoshimoto JPN Ferrari 488 GT3 2:25.149 9 10 5.896 0.283 151.79
HubAuto Racing
19 17 Ricky Capo AUS BMW Z4 2:27.795 12 12 8.542 2.646 149.07
Modena Engineering
20 98 MA Ching Yeung Philip HKG Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:28.381 5 12 9.128 0.586 148.48
GruppeM Racing
21 22 KUO Ku o Hsin T PE Mercedes AMG GT3 2:32.561 9 9 13.308 4.180 144.41
D2 Racing Team
22 68 John Shen CAN Porsche 911 GT3R (991) 2:34.835 8 10 15.582 2.274 142.29
Modena Motorsports
23 29 Tommy Tulpe DEU Audi R8 LMS 2:41.724 9 9 22.471 6.889 136.23
Team HCB-Rutronik-Racing

Source. FIA