After the 2025 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia’s dramatic season opening Shanghai races that took place in support of the Chinese Grand Prix, the series’ next port of call was the Tochigi prefecture’s Mobility Resort Motegi. Driving for Sime Motors Racing, Hugo Ellis delivered a strong race weekend performance, taking second place in both Rounds 3 and 4 of the races to give the team their first podium finishes of the season.

Although Dylan Yip put up an impressive qualifying lap for Phantom Global Racing to take his first pole in Carrera Cup Asia, it was Hugo Ellis who made a quicker race start, overtaking from third to first in the sprint down to Turn 1.

Yip was later passed in turn on the opening lap by Dylan Pereira driving for Team Shanghai Yonda BWT, who then proceeded to put the heat on race leader Ellis. The Luxembourger’s committed driving soon resulted in another overtake, taking the race lead following an intense battle before building up a strong advantage and crossing the finish line comfortably in first place. Second place went to Ellis, while Yip managed to hold on to third place after fending off TORO Racing’s Enzo Trulli.

BWT Phantom Global Racing’s five-time Pro-Am champion Bao Jinlong qualified first in class, but being incorrectly positioned on the starting grid resulted in a 10-second penalty that gave victory to Li Xuanyu, adding to his Shanghai double podiums. Bao retained second place thanks to the gap he managed to build up ahead of the other racers, and Li Chao of Team Betterlife took third, becoming the sixth Pro-Am driver to score a podium in three races and ideally reflecting the series’ very level field of competition.

In the Am class, Thailand’s Munkong Sathienthirakul put in another dominant performance for Earl Bamber Motorsport, taking a commendable point scoring 10th place overall. TRIPLE ACE RACING’s Henry Kwong took second with another strong drive, while series debutant Xu Zhefeng managed to finish third in class on his first race.

It was Porsche Own Retail 69’s Jacky Wu who took victory in the Masters class, recovering superbly from two fourth place class finishes while racing at home in Shanghai just the previous month. EBM’s Malaysian driver Adrian D’Silva scored a second in class finish, with Christian Chia scoring third for his seasoned Carrera Cup Asia team OpenRoad Racing.

Race 4 on Sunday delivered more motorsport action, with Ellis again making a good start after qualifying second on the grid. He mounted a challenge for the lead to the pole-starting Pereira through Motegi’s opening corners, but the 2022 Mobil 1 SuperCup champion managed to hold the lead.

610 Racing’s Hu Bo ended up in the gravel later in the race, leading to a Safety Car that gave the chasing pack an opportunity to challenge Pereira, but he made a strong restart to take his third season victory and extend his championship advantage. Second and third overall places went to Ellis and Yip again, while Trulli held off Josh Rowledge of Team WeTrade x PGR’s Josh Rowledge throughout a race-long battle to come home fourth.

Bao put in a strong race performance in Race 4 to recover from Saturday’s disappointing result, taking the win in Pro-Am while putting pressure on the Pro class’ trailing racers. Xuanyu put in another strong drive to cross the line second in class, and OpenRoad Racing’s Francis Tjia took third place.

The Am class saw the most exciting battle for victory, lasting over several laps between Bergwerk Motorsport’s standing class champion Eric Kwong and Sathienthirakul who currently leads the class in 2025. Kwong stood up to his attacks from behind over multiple laps, but Sathienthirakul managed to clinch the class win after overtaking superbly down the inside of Turn 3 following a Safety Car restart late in the race. Wu Jiaxin of Origine Motorsport took third place to join the duo on the podium.

Sunday also saw D’Silva scoring his third Masters class win for 2025, with the class’ second and third places taken by Chia and Modena Motorsport’s John Shen respectively. Next on the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia 2025 will be Rounds 5-7 at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit on 6-8 June, including the Endurance Cup’s return for the first time.