Luo Kailuo set the pace on the opening day in Beijing by leading a Harmony one-two from team-mate Zhang Yaqi.
The all-new street circuit, which hosts GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS’s championship showdown this weekend, represented a voyage into the unknown for every driver on the grid – something exacerbated further by the overnight rain that rendered the morning session wet.
Alexander Sims topped the first session in JMR’s Corvette before subsequent track repairs forced organisers to make extensive timetable changes. There was still enough time to run most of the second test before the gathering darkness necessitated an early finish.
Luo set his best of 1m46.713s moments before the chequered flag. It was 12 seconds quicker than Sims managed this morning, as well as four tenths up on team-mate Zhang who’d only just replaced his team-mate at the top of the timesheets.
Two championship chasing cars finished third and fourth. Bastian Buus finished 0.7s adrift in the Porsche he shares with Lu Wei – who starts 14 points behind leaders Bob Yuan and Leo Ye – while Cao Qi’s Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG was another three tenths further back thanks to Jayden Ojeda.
Nico Menzel (GTO Racing) and Sims rounded out the top six. But with running cut short, lap times are likely to tumble further on Saturday when familiarity and grip levels both increase.
Absolute Corse’s Lamborghini driven by Akash Nandy was the leading Silver-Am entry in seventh overall, while Ben Porter topped the Am class times in AMAC’s Porsche.