Martin Xie puts Honda on pole in rain-hit qualifying session
Martin Xie took pole position for the fifth round of the 2015 China Touring Car Championship at the Guangdong International Circuit on Dong Feng Honda Racing’s return after a race away, two-tenths faster than the Changan Ford FRD Focus of Darryl O’Young, with Honda team-mate Henry Ho third.
The two Hondas held the first two spots through most of the session before a late charge from the former World Touring Car Championship driver O’Young saw him snatched second position, splitting the two Civic saloons.
O’Young outperformed his three Ford team-mates, with reigning champion and points leader Andy Yan qualifying in fifth position, with Rainey He and Gao Hua Yang 12th.
Haima Z1 Racing had their best qualifying result in their first season in the CTCC Super Production class, with He Zi Xian qualifying fourth overall, just under four-tenths from Xie’s pace in the Haima M6.
Kia endured a relatively tough session, with Jason Zhang the best placed for the South Korean marque in sixth, with team-mates Leo Yi Hong Li, Larry Lin Le Feng and Jim Ka To seventh, ninth and tenth respectively.
In the Super Production Cup class for the next generation 2.0 litre turbo cars, which is being run as a separate race again as of this weekend, it was Teamwork Motorsport’s Sunny Wong who claimed pole position in his Citroën C-Elysée, just 29-thousandths of a second faster than Shanghai VW 333 Racing’s Wang Rue, with Zhang Zhen Dong third in his VW Polo, also within a tenth of a second of Wong’s time. Jiang Tengyi was fourth, while the wild card Volkswagen of Pun Jun Jin was fifth quickest ahead of the second Teamwork Citroën of Alex Hui.
The Super Production race takes place at 13:57 CST on Sunday, with the Cup class race taking place at 14:42.
