06 May 2013 Storming Ragginger takes pole for Rounds 4 and 5 Zhuhai.

Team Eagle’s Martin Ragginger set the overall fastest time during qualifying today, taking pole position for Round 4 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia on the 4.3km Zhuhai International Circuit. Second quickest was Craft Nexus Racing’s Earl Bamber of New Zealand, with Team Jebsen’s Rodolfo Avila third quickest out on track and LKM Racing Team’s Keita Sawa of Japan making up the second row.

In Class B, it was OpenRoad Racing’s Francis Tjia who took his first pole of the season, having missed out on Rounds 2 and 3 in Shanghai last month. Second in the category was points leader Egidio Perfetti of Mentos Racing with Dorr McElrea Racing’s Yuey Tan of Singapore third.

With each driver’s second best lap setting the grid for Round 5, the first two rows will be the same, but with Basetex Racing’s Zhang Da Sheng and reigning champion Alexandre Imperatori of PICC Team StarChase making up the third row. In Class B, Round 5 will see Tan take pole ahead of Asia Racing Team’s Li Chao and Perfetti.

As the 25-strong field headed out on track, the front runners were immediately quick, with Bamber fastest and Ragginger, Sawa, Imperatori and Tung all lapping in under 1:38 seconds. However, just minutes into the session Ragginger snatched provisional pole with a scorching lap of 1:37.010, smashing last year’s best qualifying time set by reigning champion, PICC Team StarChase driver Alexandre Imperatori.

A third of the way through the single qualifying session, Avila had climbed the time sheets to sit third behind Ragginger and Bamber, who had bettered his time and closed the gap to the Austrian to 0.074 of a second. Imperatori was gaining ground too, working his way up to fifth on the time sheets.

Ragginger looked to have sealed the deal until the closing minutes when Bamber grabbed the top spot, breaking the 1:37 second barrier. In the dying seconds of the 30-minute session though Ragginger fought back, reclaiming pole by just four hundredths of a second.

Said Ragginger: “It’s pretty close here as you can see from the time sheets. It seems the others have come closer this time. I’m hoping for two clean races as it’s important to score points. Earl is the closest, so it’s important I keep him behind me. We used both sets of tyres in the session but if we’d saved them, we wouldn’t be on pole.”

Having struggled in free practice, Bamber was delighted to be right on the pace when it counted most: "We chipped away at it, and I was quite surprised at our lap time. I thought 1:36.9 would be enough, but Martin had a bit more this time. We start the race on the inside, so it’ll be a big battle into Turn 1, and a battle for the whole race. If you break one second on the first lap, then you’ve got it, but with the bumps it’s easy to make a mistake. We’re getting more confident and making progress but we can’t get too greedy. These guys are all very competitive and it’s a pleasure to be racing against them."

Avila was also pleased to be at the sharp end of the highly-competitive grid, and was confident of his pace ahead of the 12-lap race: “The second set of tyres was better, but there was some traffic. Even so, we did a good time and we had the pace to be in the 1:36.9s. If I can have a good fight in the race and pass, that would be great!”

Francis Tjia who was relishing the opportunity to focus on wins rather than points: “I’m feeling good! I knew at the start of the season that I wouldn’t be able to do every event, so it’s nice to put thoughts of the championship out of the way, to drive my heart out and not worry about points. The race is going to be a great battle! The first lap always creates some chaos here, so you have to get through that first and then go for the guys ahead.”

Following the session, three drivers were penalised by the Stewards for race regulation infringements: Imperatori was handed a two place grid penalty for Round 4; Team Yongda Dongfang’s Benjamin Rouget had his first and second best times removed; while Kamlung Racing’s Li Zhi Cong forfeit his fastest time.