Photo: Procar.cc

Martin Xie claims third pole in a row at Tianma

Changan Ford FRD Team driver Martin Xie has taken his third pole position of the year for the fourth round of the 2014 China Touring Car Championship, taking place at the Shanghai Tianma Circuit this weekend.

Due to the small track, the qualifying session was divided into two segments, with Xie’s time of 1:07.155 set during the first segment.

Xie’s closest rivals were two of his Ford team-mates, with Rainey He qualifying second and reigning champion Andy Yan third.

Gao Hua Yang was the highest placed of the Shanghai VW 333 Racing team’s drivers. Gao qualified in fourth place with a time also set in the first qualifying session. While Lo Ka Chun, the Hong Kong driver replacing Zhang Zhen Dong this weekend at the team, and the only one of the VW drivers in the second qualifying session, ended up in seventh position after mechanical issues.

With the absence of Team Work Motorsport and their Citroën C-Elysées, G Racing’s two brand-new Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 Turbos hatches became the only representatives in the independent trophy.

Kenneth Look and Lin Li Feng (replacing the team’s regular driver Jason Zheng Zhi Qiang) qualified sixth and tenth respectively.

Zhu Yuan Lu, Li Jiang Ting and Wan Jian Wei, the three wild card drivers taking part from Tianma’s touring car series, qualified 11th to 13th in their Honda Civic 2.0s respectively.

The CTCC Super Production race will be held at 13:15 on Sunday.

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