Rob Huff snatches back pole position in wet Shanghai qualifying session
Rob Huff has taken pole position for the first round of the 2018 China Touring Car Championship for SAIC VW333 Racing, after a last-minute battle with the Kia of Alex Fontana in a wet qualifying session.
Changan Ford driver Martin Cao set the first benchmark with a time of 2:09.679 while Huff remained in the pit lane at the start of the session, venturing out to better Cao’s time by almost half a second just before ten minutes of the session had elapsed.
The times then seemed to settle down, before the Kia of Leo Yi Hong Li improved to fifth with five minutes to go, showing there was more pace to be found on the circuit.
Leo Yi’s team-mate Alex Fontana then headed out, forcing Huff to respond and also go out on circuit. The Swiss driver then grabbed pole position with a time of 2:09.235, leaving Huff with just one lap.
Despite being slower than Fontana in the first two sectors, Huff made up eight-tenths in the final sector alone to put his Volkswagen Lamando GTS back on pole by just 0.180 seconds.
The Ford Focus of Martin Cao will start third ahead of team-mate Andy Yan, with Leo Yi Hong Li fifth in his Kia K3 2.0T.
The next best Volkswagen was that of Macanese driver Rodolfo Avila in sixth, who will start ahead of Zhang Da Sheng’s Ford Focus.
Changan Ford’s Rainey He was eighth fastest, meaning all four of the Fords start in the top eight, with Zheng Zhen Dong ninth in his Volkswagen, and Juan Carlos Zhu in the new Senova D50 completing the top ten.
The first race is scheduled for 15:38 CST (9:38 CEST).
