The 2026 GT World Challenge (GTWC) Asia powered by AWS season reached its halfway point at Fuji International Speedway with a weekend of close finishes, contrasting strategies and significant title implications.
Harmony Racing opened the event by converting David Chen Weian’s surprise Race 1 pole position into victory for the team’s new Sakura-liveried Ferrari. Liu Kaishun completed the result after resisting LM Corsa’s Ryo Ogawa during a tense final stint.
Origine Motorsport then extended its remarkable Fuji winning streak in Race 2. Laurin Heinrich and Lu Wei overcame a five-second success penalty to secure victory, while Lu became the most successful driver in GT World Challenge Asia history with his eighth overall win.
Elsewhere, Team KRC claimed Race 2 pole and secured a dramatic podium, Team 5ZIGEN produced two remarkable recovery drives and the championship-leading Absolute Racing Porsche saw its advantage shrink to four points.
2026 GTWC Asia: Fuji testing: Harmony and Absolute trade early benchmarks
Harmony Racing set the opening pace when Chen and Liu topped Thursday’s first test session in the No. 96 Ferrari 296 GT3.
Chen recorded a 1m39.951s lap to edge Cheng Congfu and Yu Kuai’s No. 16 FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry by just 0.016s. Brendon Leitch placed the No. 72 Apex Predator Harmony Racing Ferrari third and led the Pro-Am runners, only 0.153s behind the benchmark.
LM Corsa returned to GT World Challenge Asia with Shigekazu Wakisaka and Ryo Ogawa in fourth, while Brian Lee and Max Oosten led Silver-Am for GTO with KRC. Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei placed Origine Motorsport’s Porsche at the top of the Am class.
However, Absolute Racing moved ahead during the second test session. Thierry Vermeulen and Andy Tan topped the times with a 1m39.514s in the No. 98 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II.
Daisuke Yamawaki and Jiatong Liang placed Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Mercedes-AMG second and led Silver-Am, while Anthony Liu and Dorian Boccolacci took third for Phantom Global Racing. Tom Sargent and Kyle Washington recovered from an engine failure in the opening test to finish fourth in Absolute’s guest Porsche.
Test Session 1 Results
Test Session 2 Results
Official Practice: Sargent rebounds to lead Silver-Am sweep
Sargent continued Absolute’s strong start by setting the fastest Official Practice time on Friday morning.
The Australian recorded a 1m39.223s in the No. 32 Porsche 911 GT3 R, beating Elias Seppanen’s Climax Racing Mercedes-AMG by 0.469s. Consequently, Silver-Am entries occupied the first two positions.
Boccolacci took third and led Pro-Am for Phantom Global Racing, while Heinrich placed Origine’s newly liveried No. 11 Porsche fourth. Team 5ZIGEN’s Atsushi Miyake and Takayuki Aoki headed the Silver runners in fifth with the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.
Garage 75’s returning Ferrari led the Am class through David Tjiptobiantoro and Christian Colombo. However, Huang Ruohan later set the fastest Bronze Session time with a 1m40.538s, beating Anthony Liu by 0.153s and Wang Zhongwei by 0.712s.
Pre-Qualifying: Heinrich puts new-look Origine Porsche on top
Momentum shifted towards Origine Motorsport during Pre-Qualifying as Heinrich produced the fastest lap of Friday.
Origine replaced Lu’s familiar No. 4 and purple colour scheme with the No. 11 and a black, silver and red livery ahead of Fuji. The changes accompanied a renewed push from the 2025 championship runner-up, who entered the weekend fifth in the standings after scoring only four points at Mandalika.
Heinrich underlined the Porsche’s potential with a 1m39.041s. His effort beat Sargent’s Official Practice benchmark by almost two tenths and placed Origine 0.217s ahead of Vermeulen’s Absolute Racing Audi.
Max Hesse followed only 0.039s behind Vermeulen in Team KRC’s BMW, while Sargent again led Silver-Am from fourth. Akash Nandy topped the Silver class in fifth, and championship leaders Huang and Alessandro Ghiretti completed the top six.
Official Practice Results
Bronze Session Results
Pre-Qualifying Results
2026 GTWC Asia: Fuji Qualifying: Chen and Hesse spring surprises
Qualifying produced two unexpected poles as Chen defeated the established Silver drivers in Q1 before Hesse prevailed in an extraordinarily close Q2.
Q1: Chen claims Race 1 pole on GTWC Asia return
Chen delivered one of the weekend’s standout performances by taking Race 1 pole in Harmony Racing’s No. 96 Ferrari.
The Harmony team owner returned to championship competition after more than a year away and had last raced the Ferrari 296 GT3 at Mandalika in 2025. Nevertheless, he recorded a 1m38.762s to lead the full-time Silver contenders.
Cheng placed the FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom entry alongside him after finishing only 0.054s slower. Meanwhile, solo drivers Adderly Fong and Nandy completed the second row for 33R Harmony Racing and Absolute Racing respectively.
Anthony Liu led Pro-Am from fifth, narrowly ahead of championship leader Huang. Li Lichao claimed the Silver-Am benchmark for Climax Racing in seventh, while Ben Porter put AMAC Motorsport on Am pole from 12th overall.
Qualifying 1 results
Q2: Hesse edges Sargent and Heinrich in three-way fight
Only 0.030s covered the leading three drivers in Q2.
Jaxon Evans, Seppanen, Leitch and Heinrich all occupied the top position during the session. However, Hesse settled the contest late with a 1m37.850s lap in Team KRC’s No. 89 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.
Sargent missed pole by only 0.026s, while Heinrich followed another 0.004s behind after officials deleted his first representative effort for a track-limits violation.
Evans placed Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom fourth, while Seppanen led the full-season Silver-Am entries from fifth. Leitch qualified sixth before Fong secured Silver pole in seventh. Zhou Bi Huang led Am for Climax Racing.
Qualifying 2 results
2026 GTWC Asia: Fuji races: Harmony and Origine share victories
Race 1 delivered Harmony’s first overall victory of the season and LM Corsa’s best championship result. Then, Origine maintained Porsche’s perfect recent record at Fuji as Lu moved closer to the championship lead.
Race 1: Chen and Liu deliver Harmony breakthrough
Chen started Race 1 from pole, but his lead disappeared during a busy opening lap.
Cheng jumped the start from second, while Fong swept around both front-row starters and moved the sister Harmony Ferrari into the lead legally before the end of the first lap. Chen consequently slipped to third behind Fong and Cheng.
Fong controlled the opening stint with Cheng and Chen close behind. Further back, Wakisaka charged from eighth to fourth, while Aoki produced an even more dramatic recovery in Team 5ZIGEN’s Nissan.
Aoki started 23rd after a difficult Q1 but used the GT-R’s straight-line speed to climb to sixth before the mandatory driver changes. His progress placed the Nissan firmly in contention for a top-five finish.
The pit window transformed the order. Fong competed alone and therefore served additional mandatory pit-stop time, while officials added a five-second penalty to the No. 16 Audi for Cheng’s jump start.
Chen handed the No. 96 Ferrari to Liu without either disadvantage. As a result, Liu emerged ahead of Ogawa, who had taken over LM Corsa’s Ferrari from Wakisaka.
Ogawa remained within one or two seconds throughout the second half and repeatedly kept Liu under pressure. However, Liu controlled the gap and crossed the line only 0.877s ahead to claim overall and Silver victory.
The result gave Harmony Racing its first win of the season and immediately rewarded its new partnership and Sakura-inspired livery. Meanwhile, Wakisaka and Ogawa secured Pro-Am honours and LM Corsa’s best GT World Challenge Asia result on the team’s return to the series.
Heinrich supplied the late-race entertainment in Origine’s Porsche. After the stops, the German passed Fong and then caught Miyake’s Nissan.
Miyake initially used the Nissan’s speed along Fuji’s 1.5-kilometre start-finish straight to repel Heinrich. However, Heinrich repeated the attack on the following lap and completed the move.
He then closed on Yu’s fourth-placed Audi and launched his decisive move on the final lap. Heinrich grabbed third to complete the podium for Origine, with Yu finishing only 0.470s behind.
Aoki and Miyake completed their recovery in fifth, while Fong took sixth. Hesse and Ruan Cunfan finished seventh, and Nandy’s solo-driver pit-stop requirement dropped the Absolute Lamborghini to eighth.
Huang and Ghiretti endured their first finish outside the top four in 2026 but still placed ninth. They also extended their championship lead because Anthony Liu and Boccolacci carried the maximum success penalty and finished 10th.
Lee and Oosten secured Silver-Am victory for GTO with KRC from 12th overall. Meanwhile, Liu Hangcheng and Wang Zhongwei earned their third Am win in five races for Origine Motorsport.
Race 1 results
Race 2: Heinrich and Lu extend Origine’s Fuji streak
Origine faced a more complicated route to victory in Race 2.
Heinrich started third behind Hesse and Sargent, while the No. 11 Porsche carried five seconds of additional pit-stop time after finishing third on Saturday. Nevertheless, Heinrich immediately passed Sargent on the opening lap and began tracking Hesse’s leading BMW.
The Porsche driver attacked Hesse at the final corner midway through the opening stint. Heinrich moved down the inside, but poor traction on the exit allowed Hesse and Leitch to draw alongside.
Leitch won the three-wide drag race and briefly placed the Apex Predator Harmony Ferrari at the front. However, Heinrich regrouped and reclaimed the lead two laps later.
Heinrich then pushed to overcome Origine’s success penalty. Although he only gradually increased the advantage during the following laps, a rapid in-lap extended the margin beyond five seconds before the mandatory stop.
Lu therefore emerged with the lead intact. He subsequently built an advantage of approximately 10 seconds over Song Jiajun, who had taken over from Leitch.
Behind them, Boccolacci and Anthony Liu launched a remarkable recovery from 15th on the grid. Boccolacci gained six places during the opening stint before Phantom Global Racing’s pit work moved the Porsche further forwards.
Liu then passed another three cars on track. He overtook Song with approximately one-quarter of the race remaining but lacked enough time to catch Lu, who controlled the final laps and won by 6.713s.
The victory gave Origine Motorsport a third consecutive Fuji win across three seasons. It also made Lu the first driver to win twice during the 2026 campaign after his earlier Sepang success with Alessio Picariello.
More significantly, Lu moved ahead of Anthony Liu to become GT World Challenge Asia’s most successful driver. The Fuji victory marked his eighth overall win and his first with the No. 11 Porsche’s new black colour scheme.
Behind the leading Porsches, Ruan defended the final podium position against two fast Silver entries.
Aoki and Miyake again charged through the field in the 5ZIGEN Nissan and closed rapidly during the final laps. Ruan resisted their attacks before crossing the line only 0.004s ahead in a dramatic photo finish.
The result gave Hesse and Ruan third overall, while Aoki and Miyake took Silver victory in fourth. Fong overcame his additional solo-driver pit-stop time to finish fifth, only 0.145s behind the Nissan.
Championship leaders Huang and Ghiretti finished sixth after another quiet race by their early-season standards. Wakisaka and Ogawa followed in seventh after carrying 10 seconds of additional pit-stop time for their Race 1 result.
Song and Leitch dropped to eighth after the stops, while Cheng and Yu recovered from an early off to take ninth. Race 1 winners Chen and Liu completed the top 10 despite serving a combined 26 seconds of success and class-related pit-stop penalties.
Lee and Oosten completed a perfect Silver-Am weekend for GTO with KRC by winning the class again from 12th overall. Zhou Bi Huang and Setiawan Santoso claimed Am honours for Climax Racing in 18th.
Race 2 results
Incidents, penalties and missed opportunities
Additional pit-stop time and penalties shaped both races at Fuji.
In Race 1, Cheng’s jump start removed the No. 16 Audi from the victory fight despite its strong early pace. Fong led the opening stint, but the additional solo-driver pit-stop requirement dropped his Ferrari to sixth.
Sargent also struggled to convert his practice and Qualifying pace into results. He started Race 2 from the front row but fell behind Heinrich on the opening lap, while the No. 32 Absolute Porsche finished outside the overall points in both races.
Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom’s No. 15 entry endured an even more difficult Saturday. Pato and Evans completed only two laps in Race 1, but the sister Phantom Global Racing Porsche supplied a major recovery on Sunday as Boccolacci and Anthony Liu charged from 15th to second.
Success penalties also created contrasting outcomes for the leading teams. Heinrich and Lu overcame five additional seconds to win Race 2, while LM Corsa’s extra 10 seconds limited Wakisaka and Ogawa to seventh.
Chen and Liu faced an even greater obstacle after their Race 1 victory. Their combined 26-second handicap prevented another podium challenge, although they still recovered to 10th and collected the final overall point.
Championship picture and next stop
Fuji transformed the overall championship battle. Huang and Ghiretti retained the lead with 80 points, but Lu’s third place and victory moved him to 76. Anthony Liu also reduced his deficit and sits third on 72 points, while Cheng and Yu share fourth with 54.
Therefore, only eight points separate the leading three championship challengers at the halfway point of the season.
Absolute Racing continues to lead the Teams’ Championship with 119 points. Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom holds second with 94, while Origine Motorsport’s Fuji resurgence lifted the team to 78. Phantom Global Racing follows on 72, ahead of Team KRC on 53 and Harmony Racing on 46.
The championship will next visit Okayama International Circuit from 27-30 August for Rounds 7 and 8.
Huang and Ghiretti will arrive without a success penalty, while their nearest rivals Lu and Anthony Liu must carry additional pit-stop time after their Fuji podiums. However, Origine’s return to winning form and Phantom’s recovery have ensured a much tighter title contest for the second half of the season.
