Kings Racing took 1-2 qualifying finish for GT3 in Round 11 of the China GT 2017 season. Points’ leader Xu Jia and co-driver Dries Vanthoor finished on pole while teammates Wang Liang and Martin Rump completed the front row. Li Chao and Chris van der Drift of JRM were third. CJ Huang conceded pole to TSRT drivers Huang Yiqing and Matteo Cressoni. Pan Chao and Andrew Tang finished a close third, with the top three driver pairings separated by less than 0.3 second. Stanley Yang Mengqiao took his third consecutive pole since Chengdu, alongside new teammate Jack Mitchell. Anthony Chan and Dominic Ang of Team Lotus, and Zhou Yong and Max Wiser of ChinaEquity AMR finished in P2 and P3.
GT3
GT3 points’ leader Xu Jia took another crucial pole with Belgian Dries Vanthoor, with a time of 01:27.331. A dominating performance at the Chengdu weekend has put Xu into the lead of the drivers’ standings.
Wang Liang and Martin Rump in the second florescent blue Audi were 0.6 seconds off the pace and secured the second front row lockout for Kings Racing this season.
GT3 championship contenders Li Chao and Chris van der Drift took P3. The duo has two race wins and four podium finishes this season, and is currently 10 points behind Xu Jia with only 50 more points up for grabs.
Completing the grid: Kuo Kuo Hsin and Maxx Ebenal of D2 Racing, Xu Wei and Ling Kang of Kings, and Yang Yuan of Kings.
GTC
TSRT’s Huang Yiqing and Matteo Cressoni will start on pole for GTC Class ahead of championship leader D2’s CJ Hunag. The Italian set the pace with a stunning time of 01:29.658, the only one to make it into the 1:30:00s’ mark in the GTC Class.
Huang qualified second only 0.146s off the pace. He is now 24 points clear of title rivals Bian Hao and Will Bamber, who suffered a mechanical issue during Bian’s session and had to start from the back.
Andrew Tang and Pan Chao finished third with a time of 01:31.899, ahead of Xtreme Motorsports’ Song Bo and Dominic Ang. JRM’s Zheng Hui, Xiao Min and Shang Lei, and Bian Hao and Will Bamber finished from fifth to seventh respectively. Billy Lo and Thomas Ashton in the second Radical Rxc V6 failed to set a time during qualifying.
GT4
ChinaEquity AMR’s Stanley Yang Mengqiao put in another blistering qualifying lap to take pole with new teammate Briton Jack Mitchell, with a combined time of 01:36.377. Yang’s time of 01:37.223 was quickest among the gentlemen drivers in session two, one second ahead of the second place finisher. This is the #618 entry’s third pole position of the season. In the previous weekend, Yang took back-to-back pole-to-win finish in the Aston Martin with another AMR young driver Ross Gunn, who sadly has to sit out the China GT finale due to a prior racing commitment.
Only 0.1 second adrift, Anthony Chan of Team Lotus and new teammate Dominic Ang will start second. The Malaysian has put in the overall fastest lap in the GT4 Class (01:34:034). Chan’s Lotus Evora has been struggling with mechanical issues since Shanghai. The Hong Kong driver made his China GT debut at Zhuhai and three times started from the front row.
The other ChinaEquity AMR’s Zhou Yong and Italian Max Wiser qualified third with a time of 01:36.627. However, the pair was given a three-place grid penalty due to a Round 10 incident and will start sixth.
GT4 drivers’ and teams’ championship leader, The Winning Team’s Roelof Bruins and David McIntyre qualified fourth but will start from P3 after penalties apply. Finishing from fifth onwards are: Chen Yinian and Ling Kang of Xtreme Motorsports, Yang Zhiyi and Adderly Fong of ZIA FEA Racing and Yin Jinge and Zhang Dongqi of ZIA FEA Racing. Team Lotus’ Sam Lok and Clement Li did not set a time.
