Leo Yi Hong Li grabs pole for Kia in rain-hit Beijing qualifying

Kia Racing’s Leo Yi Hong Li took pole position for the final round of the 2015 China Touring Car Championship at the Beijing FASC circuit, and will start on the grid ahead of Changan Ford FRD driver Darryl O’Young and the Dongfeng Honda Civic of Martin Xie.

With snow a potential threat during qualifying, and taking advantage of the short 1.7km nature of the circuit, the CTCC organisers opted for a single-lap qualifying shootout for all drivers, with Leo Yi coming out on top, setting a time of 58.992 in his Kia K3S to secure his first pole position of the season.

Leo Yi’s team-mate Jim Ka To set the second fastest time, but will serve a five-place grid penalty left over from the last race which promotes Ford’s Darryl O’Young to second on the grid with the Honda of Martin Xie third.

The fastest of the title contenders was Kia’s Jason Zhang, setting the fifth fastest time in the session, and will start fourth courtesy of Jim Ka To’s penalty, while it was a disastrous session for the other two title contenders.

Dongfeng Honda driver Henry Ho was tenth fastest in his Honda Civic, while championship leader Andy Yan made a mistake on his lap and was 6.6 seconds off the pace. The Changan Ford driver will start 13th and last as he tries for his third title in tomorrow’s race.

In the Super Production Cup Class qualifying session, Jiang Tengyi secured pole position for Shanghai VW 333 Racing in his Polo GTI 2.0T, setting a time of 1:01.255, four-tenths of a second faster than Teamwork Citroën C-Elysée driver Sunny Wong.

The two title contenders, Volkswagen team-mates Wang Rue and Zhang Zhen Dong, will start side-by-side on row two of the grid.

The Cup Class race takes place at 12:35 CST on Sunday, with the Super Production Class race at 11:50.