Matteo Cairoli’s debut in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia was full of twists and turns. The driver from Como, who just finished a pretty busy first part of the season competing in various categories, made his debut in the Asian GT racing series: the driver born in 1996 participated in the fourth round of the season at the Mobility Resort Motegi at the wheel of the Porsche 992 of Absolute Racing, together with the Chinese driver Bao Jinlong. The Japanese weekend started perfectly for Cairoli: after leading the first free practice session, the driver from Como snatched the pole position for the second race of the weekend thanks to a lap of 1:50.260 during the second qualifying session. However, the first race wasn’t so good for the Absolute team, with Bao having to retire the car right after the start due to a crash while he was battling for the third position.
Race-2 was surely more positive for the Absolute team: after starting from pole, Cairoli took advantage of the first stint to increase the gap from the second position up to almost a four-second margin once they stopped for the pit stop. Bao was great at keeping a consistent pace for the rest of the race, keeping the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Triple Eight JMR behind after being overtaken by the Porsche 992 of R&B Racing. A second place finish is what Cairoli brought home during the second race of the weekend, a result that pays back all the efforts he made at his debut in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia. Cairoli will be back on track in the series during the fifth round of the season, scheduled for August 18-20 in Okayama.
Matteo Cairoli
“I’m happy about the second place finish in race-2, it’s a good result and I’m proud of it as it allowed us to redeem ourselves after the first race retirement. Adapting to these conditions wasn’t easy, but the car was really fast and I have to thank Absolute Racing for working so hard on it during the whole weekend. I also want to thank my teammate Bao Jinlong, because after the difficult start in race-1 he was still very consistent in the second race and brought home a very important podium for us. Now I can’t wait to come back racing here in Asia for the fifth round of the championship in Okayama.”
