Title Rivals Share Front Row For Crucial Zhuhai Race

Chris Winter and Evgeny Restov took the top two positions in qualifying for the GT Super Series Round of China from the Zhuhai International Circuit.

A decisive first pole position of the season for the American gives the championship leader a clear track at the start of the race on Sunday. He and co-driver Einar Armannsson are thirteen points ahead of second place starting Evgeny Restov and co-driver James James Davies with an opportunity to be crowned champions in China. The Russian put in a time that was two hundredths of a second slower than what was set by the Factory Lamborghini driver. They would put in the top two times of the session in their first runs and no one would be able to unseat either of them from the first row of the grid.

Two hundredths behind Restov and starting third for the Round of China is his teammate Denis Van Walwijk, the last driver to go into the one minute twenty-nines during the qualifying session. Alongside the South African is Matteo Rossi, missing out on becoming the sole owner of the Season-High mark for pole positions in China, leaving him with one last opportunity to do so in Suzuka, Japan.  Rossi was three and a third tenths of a second off of the pole time set by Winter.

Rossi would lead a very tight group that would include the next two rows on the grid, only comprised of Manufacture Trophy entries. The gap between Rossi and the first Independent qualifier in ninth, Gia Van Dycke, would be seven hundredths of a second. Highlighting the group with a strong sixth place starting position was Anton Robishaud in the Pagani Zonda GR. Starting behind him is Fabian Rei in seventh, after being eliminated from Championship Contention in Sepang, Malaysia.

The next closest Independent qualifier to Van Dycke is Koyomi Setou in the Best In The World Lamborghini, continuing to show her strong form since taking over starting driver duties in Germany; she starts the race in twelfth place. Independence Trophy leader Valeri Kozar sees his car start sixteenth and fifth in class with a high likelihood that he’ll be crowned champion come the end of the Round of China. The only drivers left with a chance at the title start two positions up the road in fourteenth, being the Harrison Wilkinson and Carlton Cho-driven LKM Lamborghini.

Qualifying Results – Round of China