Double pole for Rainey He, as MG cars dominate Qualifying

MG XPower driver Rainey He has taken pole position for both Rounds 4 and 5 of the TCR China championship at the Jiangsu Wantrack International Circuit, making it three pole positions in a row for the new MG 6 TCR cars.
In the first qualifying session, which sets the grids for both of Saturday’s races, last weekend’s race winner Rodolfo Ávila set the early pace in his MG, before a flurry of improvements on the drivers’ second run saw Ávila’s teammates Sun Chao and then He improve on his time.
By the end of the session, it was an MG 1-2-3-4, with He leading Chao, Ávila, and Zhang Zhen Dong, with championship leader Ma Qing Hua’s Teamwork Motorsport Lynk & Co only able to manage fifth on the grid.
The second qualifying session saw limited running by all drivers, with Rainey He setting a provisional pole position lap of 1:08.564 early on, before improving it to a 1:08.254, putting his MG again out of reach.
It was a Lynk & Co in second, but this time it was the Autohome Racing Team car of Wang Tao, who split the four MG cars, with Ávila, Chao and Zhang behind.
Teamwork Motorsport’s Ma Qing Hua was sixth quickest and will start just ahead of his teammate Yang Xi for the first race on Sunday.
The grids for Sunday’s races two and four are partially reversed, with the number of positions set by a lottery-style draw on Friday evening.
The first two race are scheduled to take place Saturday at 9:48 and 16:28 local times (02:48 and 09:28 CET); both will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com. 

Qualifying 1
1:08.548 Rainey He (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.864 Sun Chao (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.861 Rodolfo Ávila (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.866 Zhang Zhendong (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.871 Ma Qing Hua (Shell Teamwork, Lynk & Co 03)

Qualifying 2
1:08.254 Rainey He (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.537 Wang Tao (AutoHome Racing, Lynk & Co 03)
1:08.708 Rodolfo Ávila (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.709 Sun Chao (MG XPower, MG 6)
1:08.904 Zhang Zhendong (MG XPower, MG 6)

Picture: TCR China