Dan Wells scores pole position on his CTCC debut
Britain’s Dan Wells has taken pole position for the opening round of the 2016 China Touring Car Championship in Nanjing, leading a Changan Ford FRD Team 1-2-3 ahead of team-mates Andy Yan and Rainey He in qualifying.
Wells took pole position with a time of 1:17.305 around the new Nanjing International Circuit, with the 24-year-old becoming the first international driver to take part in a CTCC race with the 2.0T class allowing foreign drivers to compete for the first time as of this weekend.
Wells was just under two-tenths of a second faster than Hong Kong’s Andy Yan, with Rainey He third, while a Ford 1-2-3-4 was spoiled by Teamwork Motorsport’s Alex Hui, with the Hong Kong driver slotting his privateer Citroën C-Elysée 2.0T into fourth position.
Hui’s team-mate Sunny Wong qualified in sixth, with the Citroëns emerging as the closest challengers to the new Ford Focus hatchbacks, while Shanghai VW 333 Racing’s new Volkswagen Lamantos struggled in the session, with Zheng Zhan Dong the best placed in seventh position ahead of Jiang Tengyi, with Wang Rue 11th and a mechanical issue meaning Han Han was unable to set a time and will start 14th and last for the first race.
In the 1.6T class, which is now recognised as the CTCC’s second tier from this season, Leo Yi Hong Li led a Kia Racing 1-2-3 with the new K3S showing promise on its debut. The 1.6T cars were faster than the 2.0T cars over a single lap, with Leo Yi’s time of 1:15.643 setting the pole position ahead of Jim Ka To and Jason Zhang.
The new Honda Civic FC saloons of Dongfeng Honda Racing Team qualified fourth, fifth and seventh, with Martin Xie their point driver, seven-tenths of a second off the pace of Leo Yi.
The Haima Racing M6s filled out the top ten and final positions, with the privateer Mazda-equipped MZ Racing team absent from the field this weekend.
The first race takes place at 09:00 CST on Sunday.
