Gordon Shedden secures his first pole position at Wuhan
Team WRT driver Gordon Shedden has taken his first pole position in the World Touring Car Cup at Wuhan, leading an Audi top four lockout in qualifying at the Chinese street circuit.
Shedden had topped the second segment of qualifying with a time of 1:22.498 in his Audi RS 3 LMS, leading team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay and the Comtoyou Racing Audis of Frédéric Vervisch and Denis Dupont, securing the final spot in the top five shootout.
Vervisch put down a strong target on his run, with Jean-Karl Vernay making a mistake in the final sector after topping the first, which dropped him behind the two Comtoyou Audis of Vervisch and Dupont.
Shedden’s pulled back the time in the final sector to put his Audi on pole, a day after his first career podium in the championship, just 0.049 seconds clear of the Belgian Vervisch.
All four championship-leading Hyundais missed the cut to progress into even the second part of qualifying for the second day in a row, as did Sébastien Loeb Racing driver Rob Huff, who qualified in 13th place.
Qualifying was also a disaster for former championship leader Yann Ehrlacher, who looks set to score no points this weekend after qualifying his Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic down in 21st.
At the end of qualifying, the closest challenger to Audi was Esteban Guerrieri in his Honda, who looks set to make strong gains in the championship this weekend.
Kevin Ceccon also put the Alfa Romeo of Team Mulsanne in the Q2 shootout for the first time this year, qualifying in 12th, while SLR Volkswagen’s Mehdi Bennani and Comtoyou Racing’s Aurélien Panis tied for the tenth fastest time in Q2, with pole for the reversed grid Race 2 being decided in Bennani’s favour as he set his time first.
On his final run, Pepe Oriola crashed into the barriers at the exit of Turn 13 as he tried to make the top five shootout, damaging the left side of his Campos Cupra TCR, and ended up qualifying in seventh position.
The first race is scheduled for 15:45 CST (09:45 CEST).
