Jason Zhang takes last-gasp pole position at Guangdong

Jason Zhang pit his Kia K3 2.0T on pole position for the third round of the 2018 China Touring Car Championship at Guangdong in the final moments of qualifying, leading Cai Yue’s Volkswagen and Leo Yi Hong Li’s Kia in a fast-paced session.

The SAIC Volkswagen 333 Racing entries seemed to have the measure of the session for the first half, with all four of the German marque’s four drivers swapping provisional pole position between them as the times continued to tumble.

Then, entering into the last ten minutes, things began to change, with David Zhu first breaking the Volkswagen stranglehold on the time sheet, putting his Beijing Racing Team Senova D50 fastest.

Soon after, it was Kia’s Jason Zhang who was quickest, the first into the 1:20s, before the Volkswagens mounted another charge, with Cai Yue then Zheng Zhen Dong going fastest, before the session was red-flagged with two minutes to go.

This gave everyone time for one more flying lap, and it was the Kias who made the most of it, with Zhang, Leo Yi and Martin Xie leaping to first, third and fourth in their K3s, with only Cai Yue’s Volkswagen in-between them.

Zheng slipped to fifth, unable to improve on his final run, with Andy Yan the best-placed of the Changan Ford FRD Team drivers in sixth, 0.450 seconds off the pace.

David Zhu was the fastest of the Senovas in seventh ahead of Rodolfo Avila’s Volkswagen, with Martin Cao’s Ford and Yang Fan’s Volkswagen completing the top ten.

The 13-lap Race 1 is scheduled for 15:00 local time (09:00 CET).