AFOS
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The driver pairing of Marchy Lee and Jeffrey Lee for Audi R8 LMS Cup set the fastest time of the day with 2:08.082 during the first qualifying session to take pole for Round 1 while the Team Clearwater Racing duo of David Lai and Keita Sawa claimed Round 2 with their time of 2:07.726 set during qualifying 2.
“It was good. We did a good job in qualifying 1 and we managed to get pole. The 2012 R8 Ultra is a very good car” said Marchy after both sessions.
For him, the most important thing to remember during a race is consistency. “We always find a consistency in the lap times during the race because the race pace is the most important thing. But today’s result, the pole position, is a good result for us” he ended with a smile.
Both qualifying sessions were closely fought with the top four drivers in Q1 within one second of one another. At the end of the first session it was the Audi on top followed by last year’s GT Asia Series Champion, Mok Weng Sun’s Ferrari F458 in second.
Mok was all smiles after being away from racing for the past two months, saying “Good results. P2 in both races. The car was good. We’ve been struggling with the setup, trying to get used to the new Yokohama tyres during the practice and we finally made one final adjustment and gotten that sorted out, so its good”.
Japanese driver, Hiroshi Hamaguchi in the second Team Clearwater Racing’s F458 is in third, just 0.018 seconds ahead of the Porsche 997 GT3R of Chinese driver Li Zhi Cong (Asia Racing Team).
It is the first time for both drivers at the Malaysian track and for Hamaguchi, the heat was something he had to get used to. “It was definitely difficult. I’ve never driven this circuit so its both new car and new circuit for me. It’s a great a circuit but its really hot”.
Liu found the track exciting saying, “qualifying was good and the engineers gave me a good car. I managed a good best lap and hope I have a good race tomorrow. This is my first time here and its and exciting circuit to race in”.
Craft Eurasia Racing’s Ford GT3 driven by Frank Yu takes row three alongside Hisao Shigeta’s Porsche 997 GT3R for Round 1.
Meanwhile, Team Clearwater Racing dominated the second qualifying session, claiming the top three spots for Round 2 grid with three Ferrari F458’s. Lai and Sawa will start from pole followed by Mok and Hamaguchi in third.
ART’s Li and the Audi of Marchy and Jeffrey Lee completes the top five for Round 2.
The GT Asia Series Round 1 is scheduled to be held on Saturday, 26 May at 10.10am while Round 2 is on Sunday, 27 May 2012 at 11.05am.
