> Qualifying results
Liu Kaishun and Alessandro Ghiretti both secured pole positions by less than half a tenth ahead of this weekend’s two GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS races around the Beijing Street Circuit.
Harmony’s Ferrari – a winner here last year – starts Saturday afternoon’s contest alongside the Cheng Congfu-driven FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom R8 that qualified 0.039s slower, while Loek Hartog’s final lap moved Origine’s championship leading Porsche up to second behind one of its primary title rivals.
The result was a suitable reward for Absolute’s #911 mechanics who spent all night building up a new chassis for Ghiretti and his co-driver Huang Ruohan following a fire at the end of Friday evening’s Bronze Test.
Four Silver-graded drivers predictably locked out Q1’s first two rows, but it was Liu and Cheng who traded top spot over the second half of the 15-minute session.
Cheng was first to set a representative time before his compatriot went a little quicker. The Audi then hit back next time around but almost immediately found itself second again when Liu recorded a 1m45.023s despite being baulked at the final corner.
Cheng managed another quick lap that reduced his deficit to less than four hundredths and extended the advantage over Sandy Stuvik, in third, to just under 0.3s. Absolute’s Lamborghini lines up alongside the 5ZIGEN Nissan driven by Takayuki Aoki.
Anthony Liu (Phantom Global) won what could be an important battle for Pro-Am supremacy, as well as significant overall points, by qualifying fifth – one place ahead of championship rival Huang. The Porsche duo share row three as well as second in the standings.
Silver-Am pole and seventh overall went to Craft-Bamboo’s Dean Cheng who starts alongside the Am class’ top qualifier, Ben Porter (AMAC).
Q2 also produced a good scrap amongst several Porsche drivers but was ultimately topped by Ghiretti. The Frenchman appeared on course for a straightforward maiden pole thanks to his 1m44.201s before Hartog considerably reduced the deficit on his final lap.
Their chances improved significantly when the weekend’s fastest driver up to that point, Joel Sturm, clipped the tyre wall exiting Turn 1. The damage appeared largely cosmetic but restricted Absolute’s other expected frontrunning 911 GT3 R to 12th.
Branden Leitch took advantage to head up row two in Harmony’s Pro-Am Ferrari that had earlier ended Pre-Qualifying in the wall, while Ayhancan Güven (Phantom Global) also found time late in the session en route to fourth.
Jesse Krohn completed the first five in KRC’s BMW which starts alongside Silver’s top qualifier, Atsushi Miyake. 5ZIGEN’s Nissan was a winner in Beijing last year.
Silver-Am honours went the way of GTO with KRC’s Maxime Oosten, and Aaron Lim Say Joon headed the Am class in Absolute’s Porsche.
The first of this weekend’s two 60-minute races begins at 15:45 CEST (+8 GMT). Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.
