Jasper Thong takes maiden Audi pole position in Zhuhai
Jasper Thong took pole position in today’s qualifying session in Shuhai, China, which marks the first pole position for the Audi RS 3 LMS worldwide. Lai Wee Sing came a close second in his Honda Civic TCR, with Chen Wei Han in third for Tianshi Racing Team in his Audi RS 3 LMS.
The German cars had actually been dominant in the first segment of qualifying, as a Tianshi Racing 1-2 led by Huang Chu Han already proved the speed of the Audis at the Chinese track. During the session several drivers were penalised due to track limits infringements.
In Q2 Jasper Thong took pole position for Audi Hong Kong ahead of Honda’s Lai Wee Sing and Audi stable-mate Chen Wei Han. Kantadhee Kusiri was fourth in his Team Engstler Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, ahead of Huang Chu Han and Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai.
Felipe da Souza will start from seventh in his 2016-spec Golf, ahead of Abdul Kaathir in his Honda Civic TCR, SEAT’s Alex Liu and championship leader Diego Moran in the Team Engstler Volkswagen.
“I’m honoured to have been able to deliver Phoenix Racing Asia and Audi Hong Kong their first pole position”, said Thong. “I am obviously overjoyed that it’s Audi’s first pole with the RS3 LMS TCR worldwide. I knew the lap had to be perfect, but also that I had to respect the track limits, as there were some drivers penalized for putting all four wheels on the grass, so I knew it had to be clean.”
Race 1 is scheduled for 10:55 local time (4:55 CET).
