Engstler beats Lloyd to the pole in Zhouzhou

On his second guest appearance in TCR China Luca Engstler claimed his second pole position at Zhouzhou International Circuit. It took only one fast lap in Q2 to the young German for topping the timesheet ahead of the MacPro Racing trio of Daniel Lloyd, Martin Xie and André Couto.
Engstler’s first lap out of 1:57.062 was not to be beaten, though both Lloyd and Xie tried their best. Lloyd improved from 1:57.469 to 1:57.272, while Xie improved from 1:57.786 to 1:57.546 as they qualified second and third. Zhang Zhen Dong placed his MG 6 fifth on the grid for Race 1, though with a gap of 2.8 seconds from the pole sitter.
Engstler had already led the field in Q1, posting the fastest lap of 1:57.329 that was five tenths faster than Lloyd’s 1:57.912. Lloyd’s teammates Couto and Xie ranked in third and fourth positions ahead of Huang Chu Han and Zheng. The only driver eliminated after Q1 was Rodolfo Ávila, whose MG 6 didn’t complete any lap time.
In the title fight, Lloyd needs to recover 20 points from Huang who qualified in sixth position.
Race 1 will start at 16:50 local time (10:50 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Qualifying
1. 1:57.062 – Luca Engstler (Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N)
2. 1:57.272 – Daniel Lloyd (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8)
3. 1:57.546 – Martin Xie (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8)
4. 1:57.994 – André Couto (MacPro Racing, Honda Civic FK8)
5. 1:59.915 – Zhang Zhen Dong (XPower Racing, MG 6)

Championship points
1. Huang 125 pts; 2. Lloyd 105; 3. Look 85