Rainey He takes pole in Shanghai as Citroëns excluded

Rainey He has taken pole position for the sixth round of the 2014 China Touring Car Championship at the Beijing Goldenport circuit, provisional pole sitter Alex Hui’s Team Work Motorsport Citroën C-Elysée WTCC was excluded, along with his team-mate and the Volkswagen of Zhang Zhen Dong.

Due to the small size of the Beijing Goldenport circuit, qualifying was split into two parts. Changan Ford FRD Team’s Rainey He set the benchmark early on in his Ford Focus with a time of 1:10.453, but this record was soon broken by Jason Zhang’s G Racing Chevrolet Cruze, but during the final moments Zhang Zhen Dong went fastest of all in his Shanghai VW 333 Racing Polo with a time of 1:09.590.

In the second part of qualifying, it was the privateer Team Work Citroëns which took over, with Alex Hui going fastest with a time of 1:09.569, and with team-mate Sunny Wong going third, their most competitive showing of the season.

Following scrutineering however, the top three were all excluded when it was discovered they were all using non-homologated air restrictors, which promoted Rainey He to pole position with Jason Zhang’s Chevrolet second and Wang Rue the leading Volkswagen in third.

The returning Honda team fared well on their first event of 2014, with Henry Ho and Peter Li Zhe Cong qualifying in fifth and ninth positions in their new Honda Civics, while Kia Racing’s top placed car was that of Michael Soong in tenth position.

Championship leader Martin Xie failed to set a time in the session and will be forced to start from 13th in his Changan Ford Focus ahead of the three excluded cars in tomorrow’s race, which takes place at 12:45 CST.