China GT kicks off another action packed weekend at the Zhuhai International Circuit (ZIC) on 28 July.
Unlike the last two Zhuhai rounds, we have a weekend of clear blue sky to look forward to and Friday’s Qualifying set off on a scorching sunny day. The heat is presenting quite the challenge for the drivers. However, tackling the track for the second time will give the drivers and teams more data to work with and a performance boost.
China GT welcomes some new addition to this round’s driver lineup: Canadian driver Maxx Ebenal, Chinese stars Zhang Zhiqing, Li Zhicong and Yuan Bo are the latest to join the race.
GT3 Class
A new BoP scheme put forward for this weekend has closed up the performance gap between each marque, and has seen cars from three different manufacturers taking up the top five spots on the timesheet, with the 6th place finisher less than a second off the pace from the leader. Bentley Team Absolute took home advantage with an impressive 1-2 finish. The #5 of Andrew Kim and Weiron Tan shot to their second pole position of the season with an average lap time of 1:36.709, and teammates Adderly Fong and Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak in the #9 Bentley Continental GT3 came second only 0.161 seconds slower.
Audi Hong Kong’s Marchy Lee and Alex Au were third with a time of 1:36.911. The drivers at the post-qualifying press conference all touched upon the importance of managing the tyres and brakes on a hot day like this, especially on a heavy-braking track such as ZIC.
From fourth to tenth in GT3 Class were: Bao Jinlong/Martin Ragginger of FAW T2M, Li Chao/Chris van der Drift of JRM JiaRui – TengDa, Melvin Moh/Lim Keong Wee of Audi Hong Kong, Morris Chen/Hiroki Yoshimoto of FAW T2M, Li Jiaqi/Maxime Jousse of JRM JiaRui-TengDa, Huang Chuhan/Max Wiser of TSRT Tianshi Racing, Xu Jia/Zhang Zhiqiang of Kings.
GTC Class
The GTC competition is also hotting up. Spirit Z-racing’s Sun Zheng and Sunny Wong put in an impressive performance in their first outing in the GTC class. Despite still getting used to the Audi R8 LMS, the pair pushed the #87 car into pole position. D2 Racing’s Huang His Chan’s car completed the front row with a time of 01:39:700 despite carrying significant success weight. Liang Kaifeng and Pu Mu of TSRT Tianshi Racing’s debut race at China GT has landed them an impressive P3 finish.
Fourth to eleventh places were respectively as follows: Zheng Hui/Maxime Jousse of JRM Elite, Chen Wei’an/Jiao Peng of TSRT Shanxi Tianshi Racing, Bian Hao/Will Bamber of JRM JiaRui-Tengda, Shang Lei/Chris van der Drift of JRM Force China, Li Zhicong/Li Xuefeng of JRM Elite, Xie Xinzhe/Lu Zhiwei of DMS Racing, Chen Junhua/Li Yueqin of Top Speed Racing, and Yuan Bo/Yan Kai of DMS Racing.
GT4 Class
There was also plenty of action in the GT4 class. Team Lotus’ Anthony Chan and Ray Mak stormed into pole. Current front-runners of the GT4 leaderboard, The Winning Team’s Roelof Bruins and David McIntyre continued to excel, finishing in second place. ZIA FEA Racing’s Yang Zhiyi and Dong Liang came third.
Eric Wong for Team Lotus and Zhang Dongqi and Yin Jinge for ZIA FEA Racing finished in fourth and fifth.
Fans will be treated to two different racing events this weekend, as the Formula Masters China Series (FMS) will also take to the tracks at ZIC. The China GT Race 5 starts at 10:45 am on 29th July – don’t miss it!
