Algarve Pro Racing on Pole for the 4 Hours of Zhuhai 29th Oct 2016

31st October 2016


The 2016-2017 season of the Asian Le Mans Series began today at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China. After two free practice sessions, the qualifying for Sunday’s race took place in the late afternoon on a wet and darkening track, and saw the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JSP2 Nissan claim the first pole position of the season, after Andrea Pizzitola set a time of 1:38.155. The #99 Wineurasia Ligier JSP3 will be on pole tomorrow for the LMP3 class, and the #38 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 will lead the GT pack.

The free practice sessions saw the cars head out for the first official track time of the weekend earlier today. The #35 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 03R Nissan was quickest in Free Practice 1, with a time of 1:30.063. In the second session, the #8 Race Performance Oreca 03R Judd set the best time with a lap of 1:30.223, but it’s worth noting that the best laps of all 4 LMP2 were within a second in FP2. The quickest LMP3 of the two sessions was the #99 Wineurasia Ligier JSP3, with a lap of 1:31.479, and in GT, the #10 FFF Racing by ACM Lamborghini Huracan GT3 was quickest of the class with a lap of 1:33.993.

The changeable conditions throughout the day gave the teams some challenging variation to work with, and the day ended with the qualifying session on a track declared wet.

algarve-pro-racing-on-pole-for-the-4-hours-of-zhuhai-29th-oct-2016-motorsportdays-track-days-1The LMP2, LMP3 and CN cars went out for the first qualifying session, which saw Andrea Pizzitola take the pole position in the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JSP2 Nissan with his time of 1:38.155.  With 2:43 to go, the session was red-flagged after the #48 PS Racing ADESS 03 and the #7 ARC Bratislava Ginetta LMP3 both got stuck in the gravel beds in turns 8 and 7 respectively.
When the session resumed, all but the #48 headed back out to try and improve their lap times, with Ho-Pin Tung in the #35 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 03R Nissan coming closest to pole position with his time of 1:38.429, giving him the second position on the first row. Andrea Roda in the #24 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier JSP2 Judd was 3rd overall with a time of 1:40.540.

Richard Bradley was quickest of the 9 LMP3 cars with his time of 1:41.346 in the #99 Wineurasia Ligier JSP3. He will be closely followed by two Ginetta LMP3 at the start tomorrow: Weiron Tan went second quickest in the #69 Aylezo Ecotint Racing 2nd with his time of 1:41.582, and the #67 PRT Racing was 3rdquickest in the LMP3 category thanks to Charlie Robertson’s lap of 1:41.745.

Having had a tough start to the weekend with car troubles, Akihiro Asai took the #68 PS Racing Ligier JS53, sole CN entry, around the track in a time of 1:48.137.

In the GT class, the Ferraris are doing very well, having claimed the top three times in the second qualifying session. The #38 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 will be starting from class pole, thanks to Marco Cioci’s lap time of 1:42.152. Mere hundredths behind him was Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #37 Team BBT Ferrari 488 GT3, with his fastest lap of 1:42.274. Third in the GT Class was Matt Griffin in the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 with his time of 1:42.337.

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Race Weekend Highlights
In addition to LeTV, Motors TV, FOX Sports and Star Sports China, we are pleased to announce new broadcasters who will be showing the 52’ Highlights of the Asian Le Mans Series events –

BTV Portugal
Motor Trend On Demand USA (worldwide)
Fox Sports Australia
OSN Middle East
Fox Sports International

The first four-hour race of the season will start on Sunday at 13:00

See you there!

Track Days / Test Days / Motorsport Days