2019 China GT Ningbo Qualifying Report
GT3
AMG factory driver Adam Christodoulou narrowly edged fellow Briton Nick Yelloly and his BMW M6 GT3 to take pole position for round 3 in Ningbo. Christodoulou, in the #63 TORO Racing AMG, set the pace on lap 2 with a time of 1:41.486, just 0.089s quicker than fellow front-row starter Yelloly’s FIST-Team AAI. Darryl O’Young stood in for the Japan-bound Alessio Picariello for the Ningbo weekend, and was third fastest, 0.316s behind.
Finishing from fourth onwards were: #77 Jazeman Jaafar, #91 Jody Fannin, #2 Kuo Kuo Hsin, #92 Kevin Chen, and #66 Lin Nan.
The second qualifying session saw Peter Liao of D2 Racing take pole position (1:43.722) on his GT3 debut, ahead of Min Heng in the #66 YC Racing entry, and Frank Yu in his #88 EWS Craft-Bamboo Racing AMG, with the top three separated by just over a second.
Rounding out the rest of the GT3 grid were #92 Ivan Lee, #90 Betty Chen, #63 Eric Zang and #77 Franky Yu .
GTC
Dominic Ang was the GTC pace-setter with a time of 1:45.833. The Xtreme Motorsport driver led Team 69’s #9 Cui Yue and Xtreme Motorsports’ #68 Lo Sze Ho, whose car stopped on track towards end of the session and was ultimately unable to join Q2. The #75 YC Racing of CJ Huang will start fourth ahead of teammate Zhou Bihuang in the #918 entry.
Zhou’s co-driver Zheng Wancheng was able to put the #918 Lamborghini on pole in the second qualifying session. He will start ahead of Lawrence Liu’s #9 Racing Team 69 Porsche, Song Bo’s #25 Xtreme Motorsport Radical and Wang Tao’s #75 YC Racing Lamborghini.
Porsche One-Make Trophy
Porsche Junior driver Daniel Lu finished ahead of Ben Rouget in the first qualifying session, and their respective teammates Jacky Wu and Simon Chan reversed positions in Q2.
GT4
The Xtreme Motorsports’ KTM duo of Ling Kang and Lo Sze Ho took a storming double pole position for the Ningbo weekend by setting the fastest times in their respective qualifying sessions.
Ling Kang lit up the timesheet upon his return to China GT with a time of 1:49.531 in the first qualifying session on Thursday, edging second-placed Alex Fontana by 0.124s. Will Bamber’s D2 AMG finished a further half a second adrift to take third place.
Round 2 pole-sitter Rainey He will start fourth on Friday’s Race 1 in the #6 AMG that he shares with Sunny Wong. From fifth onwards the times were set by the following drivers: #618 Yves Volte, #55 Sennan Fielding, #49 Charlie Fagg, #868 Luo Kailuo, #999 Wang Hao, #570 Dong Liang, #51 Oscar Lee, #3 Yan Chuang, #87 Wei Tianyi, #619 Wu Pei, and #4 Mak Kalok.
In the second qualifying session, pole was taken by the #86 KTM of Lo Sze Ho, whose time of 1:51.260 was 1.21s quicker than fellow front-row starter Wang Hao, in the new #999 Team Master Champ entry. Third place went to the #3 of Yang Xi and Yan Chuang for their best qualifying. performance position so far this season. The gentlemen drivers, who were set to partake in Q2, proved very evenly matched over one lap, with the top 9 separated by merely two seconds.
From fourth onwards the times were set by: #87 Liu Kai, #618 David Pun, #6 Sunny Wong, #5 Chris Chia, #22 Peter Liao, #49 James Cai, #619 Zhang Fangxuan, #51 Yao Yuanhao, #868 Lei Ke, #55 Kenny Chung, and #4 Ye Xuanhao.
