Qi Gives Carson Fourth Pole of 2019, Denies Davies from Getting Two in a Row

Carson Speedworks driver Li Qi earned his second, and the team’s fourth, pole position of the 2019 GT Super Series season in the qualifying for the Molson GT Gatineau.

Qi would set the pace early around the longest circuit on the GT Super Series calendar, with both of his laps from his first run being in the two minute, fourteen second barrier. He would be the only driver this season to break into the two minute fourteens this year, after five drivers were able to do it last year benefiting from notably cooler weather in the Gatineau Park region. Alongside him on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s race is Rhys Davies, continuing to show Ford’s recent performance gains after he qualified on pole position for the Round of The United States. Rhys’s teammate Darren Older Jr. wasn’t able to replicate the same kind of performance as the former Formula 1 and AutoReject World Series champion, he will be starting seventeenth for the race.

Qualifying third overall and leading the way for the Independents Class was James Douglas, earning his fifth pole position in class out of the seven sessions that have been run this year. Whilst he was more than six tenths off of Qi’s pace, he was seven tenths clear of the second fastest Independent qualifier in Harrison Wilkinson, he will be starting eighth overall. Starting between Douglas and Wilkinson will be both Scuderia Italia Ferraris, Li Qi’s teammate Joey Alliot, and the reigning GTSS World Driver’s Champion Chris Winter.

Rounding out the top 10 was Pagani driver Anton Robishaud in his home race with former Formula 1 driver Nathan McKane alongside on row five. Anton showed promise for a good weekend after a double retirement for the factory effort after putting in the fourth quickest time in Friday’s opening practice session, with McKane right behind on the time sheets in that session as he was for Qualifying. Robishaud has qualified in the top ten for all but one round of the GT Super Series thus far, the only time the Trois-Rivières native missed out was at Paul Ricard where he started twelfth overall.

Starting in twelfth overall for this weekend is Paul Travesen, putting in a near identical time to teammate Fabian Rei with both factory Listers sharing the sixth row of the grid. Behind them is the third quickest Independent driver in Phil McCracken, nearly two seconds off of the pace set by Li Qi in the session. Only the top half of the field were within two seconds of the fastest time, with current World Driver’s Championship points leader Matteo Rossi the first driver more than two seconds off the pace in sixteenth.

Qualifying Results – Molson GT Gatineau