Engstler beats Moran and Cheah to Buriram pole
Two months have gone by since the event that opened the TCR Asia and TCR Thailand season in Sepang. However, the outcome of today’s Qualifying session at Buriram’s Chang International Series was the same, with the Volkswagen Golf GTI cars of Liqui Moly Team Engstler filling the top three places.
Luca Engstler set pole position in Q2 with a lap of 1:43.401, beating his teammates Diego Moran (1:43.885) and current point leader Mitchell Cheah (1:43.903). They were the only drivers to go under the 1:44 mark, while Alex Liu set the fourth fastest lap of 1:44.471 in the Elegant Racing Team SEAT León. Fifth overall and fastest of TCR Thailand was Jakraphan Davee (1:44.648) at the wheel of the Alfaphactory Racing SEAT León DSG; he was followed by the reigning Thai champion Chariya Nuya who drove his Billionaire Boy Racing Honda Civic to cover a lap in 1:44.772.
TCR Asia newcomer Clement Tong qualified his Maximum Racing Honda Civic in tenth position, meaning that he will be on pole on the reverse grid for Race 2. Liu’s teammate Kelvin Wong will sit on the second spot of the front row.
The domination of the Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s trio had begun in Q1, with Cheah posting a fastest lap of 1:44.043 ahead of Moran (1:44.204) and Engstler (1:44.269); Davee topped the TCR Thailand field in fourth position overall (1:44.344) with Nattanid Lewattanavaragul fifth (1:44.916) in the Morin Racing SEAT León. The Thai lady was not able to repeat that performance in Q2 and qualified 11th.
Race 1 for TCR Asia is scheduled for 2.00pm on Saturday (9:00am CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.
