It was an excellent weekend for Porsche at the first round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS campaign, taking overall victory in both races, along with further success across the Pro-Am, Silver-Am and Am classes.

Eight entries, all in the 2026 Porsche 911 GT3 R, makes Porsche the best-represented manufacturer on the grid once again as the championship returned to its traditional season-opening venue of Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. Strong qualifying performances led to promising grid positions for the race starts, with Absolute Racing’s Huang Ruohan claiming third for the start of Race 1. Meanwhile, superb work from the Pro drivers would lead to a Porsche 1-2-3 at the beginning of Sunday’s event.

A solid launch for Huang, making his Porsche debut, saw him remain in third on Saturday afternoon, setting strong lap times against Silver drivers to hold his position throughout the stint, while Anthony Liu and Lu Wei made progress for Phantom Global Racing and Origine Motorsport respectively. Huang handed over to Alessandro Ghiretti at the halfway mark, with the Frenchman taking the lead following the pit stop phase.

The 2025 Porsche Junior, on his GT World Challenge Asia debut, continued Huang’s excellent work and was unchallenged as he claimed his first ever GT3 race victory, more than six seconds ahead of his nearest rival.

Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Picariello re-ignited the battle between the #37 and #4 cars, crossing the line fifth and sixth respectively. The pair also completed a full Porsche Pro-Am podium by finishing second and third in class. Joining them in the overall points was the #25 Porsche Center Okazaki entry of Kiyoshi Uchiyama and Tsubasa Kondo, who clinched eighth along with Silver-Am victory.

Absolute Racing’s Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak and Bastian Buus recovered from early contact to secure seventh in the Pro-Am category, while Wang Zhongwei and Hangcheng Liu earned a superb Am victory for Origine Motorsport. They were joined on the podium by Australian duo Andrew Macpherson and Ben Porter, who took third for AMAC Motorsport.

Buus began Race 2 on pole thanks to his strong qualifying performance, but it was Picariello who got the best launch from second on the grid to lead, with Ghiretti coming through from third to place himself in second. The duo set a blistering pace, pulling ahead of the field before the mandatory pit stops with just under 30 minutes left to run as Boccolacci remained in touch with the leading duo, settling into a strong rhythm in fourth.

Following the #911’s success penalty from the previous day’s result, the #37 car, now in the hands of Liu, would move into second after the field had completed its stops. However, the Phantom Global Racing driver was unable to mount a challenge to Wei, who clinched a record seventh GT World Challenge Asia victory, now one ahead of Liu who crossed the line in second.

After finding himself in fourth, Huang would put in another great stint, constantly pressuring the driver ahead before getting past late in the race to make it a full Porsche podium. Uchiyama and Kondo would once again claim eighth, this time finishing second in Silver-Am to complete a superb opening weekend for the Japanese pair. After a tough qualifying, Hiroaki Nagai and Kazuto Kotaka would battle hard from the back of the grid, working their way up to 12th overall and seventh in the Pro-Am category. Zhongwei and Liu enjoyed another solid performance at the hands of the #22 car, taking second in the Am category, while Macpherson and Porter crossed the line close behind in fourth.

GT World Challenge Asia returns next month, as the series travels to Mandalika International Circuit in Indonesia on May 2-3.

Huang Ruohan, Absolute Racing: “It’s been a brilliant weekend, my first two races driving this car and we took two amazing results. The win yesterday was an amazing feeling, and then today Alessandro got a great start and put me in a good position despite the success penalty we faced. My target was the podium so I was happy to make the move into third. I enjoyed the weekend, a huge thanks to Absolute Racing and I’m looking forward to more.”

Alessandro Ghiretti, Absolute Racing: “We’re delighted to be leaving Sepang as the championship leader after a brilliant weekend. Ron performed superbly in both races and the car was fantastic. I was able to get a good launch today and set strong pace in my stint, so a big thank you to the team for all their great work.”

Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak, Absolute Racing: “We had a good start to the weekend in qualifying, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way in the races. Bastian took an excellent pole position but we were a bit unlucky today. It’s early in the season so I’m looking forward to the next rounds and fighting for more for the rest of the year.”

Bastian Buus, Absolute Racing: “We put ourselves in a good position for both races after qualifying but sadly we didn’t achieve what we hoped for. We need to bounce back and fight our way up the championship, so hopefully after Mandalika the picture will look different.”

Lu Wei, Origine Motorsport: “I’m really happy with today’s race win. I found the car a bit tricky to handle, but Alessio was really comfortable and put me in the perfect position. I kept watching Anthony behind but fortunately I had enough to claim the win.”

Alessio Picariello, Origine Motorsport: “It was the perfect Race 2 for us, I knew the start would be key and it went exactly to plan. The car was superb, especially in the opening laps. The conditions were hot today, so we had to look after the tyres. Wei did an amazing job in the second half of the race to set a consistent pace and bring home the win. Thanks to the team and can’t wait for Mandalika!”

Liu Hangcheng, Origine Motorsport: “I’m so pleased with our first two races, securing P1 and P2 in class. We’re aiming for even more in Mandalika!”

Dorian Boccolacci, Phantom Global Racing: “It was a positive opening weekend of the season for us, with today’s race particularly strong. Starting seventh, I was able to get up to fourth early on and give the car to Anthony in a solid position. He then put in a great stint to claim second, the same result as we had here last year! Thanks to the crew for their hard work and we’ll be looking for the win next time out.”

Kazuto Kotaka, Porsche Center Okazaki: “We improved as the weekend went on, both with the set-up and our pace behind the wheel. The team worked hard and we showed good speed in today’s race to fight back after a tough qualifying. We still have a gap to make up, and will be looking to improve at the next event.”

Hiroaki Nagai, Porsche Center Okazaki: “This week was our first with the new car, so we worked hard to find the right balance. Unfortunately I made a mistake in Race 1, but we stepped up today to fight back well.”

Andrew Macpherson, AMAC Motorsport: “We’re happy to be back but we didn’t get the right set-up this weekend and that cost us. We qualified solidly for Race 1 to take third in class, but today we didn’t have enough pace. Looking forward to Mandalika as we aim to improve our car.”

Ben Porter, AMAC Motorsport: “It was a frustrating weekend, it’s taking us longer to get used to the new car than we hoped. The potential is there so we just need to figure it out. The team worked incredibly hard throughout so the results are disappointing, but it doesn’t reflect our potential and we’ll analyse this weekend to perform better next time out.”

Alexandre Gibot, Managing Director Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Ltd.: “A fantastic start off the line to the 2026 season for our customers in Sepang – we are very happy with their performance. Our teams and drivers have been getting to grips with the 2026 Porsche 911 GT3 R nicely, and it performed superbly. We went into the weekend cautious of the challenge ahead, but by putting a lot of work in together with our customer teams, we had some brilliant showings as a result to take both race victories, along with strong results in the Pro-Am, Silver-Am and Am categories. It’s a long road ahead in the championship so we will head to Mandalika in a few weeks ready for the competition.”