Kantadhee Kusiri set a blistering pace at Zhuhai International Circuit to claim pole for Liqui Moly Team Engstler. The Thailand driver will line up just ahead of his teammate, Diego Moran, who set the fourth fastest time during an inconsistent rain soaked Qualifying session.
Just last month both drivers raced at the Chinese circuit for the first time and as soon as they got back in the car this week, they immediately kept a good pace. Kusiri set an outstanding time of 1:50.249, and was 0.8 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, leaving him elated at the result. “Firstly I want to say thank you to the team. They gave a very good car for me, a perfect car for qualifying. We chose the right tyres and the car was perfect and it was my perfect qualifying” said Kusiri.
Tyre decision was the most important factor out there today and the Liqui Moly Team Engstler engineers made the right decision in starting with wets before moving on to slicks for the later part of the Qualifying session. That decision made all the difference for the team and drivers and it showed in the results.
“In Q1 we used wet tyres and the position was ok for Q2, then we decided to change both cars to complete slicks for the second session but we had to be careful to warm up the tyres as the track was still wet on some corners” said Kurt Treml, Sport & Marketing Director of Liqui Moly Team Engstler.
He continued, “for Kusiri, he managed a perfect lap but unluckily for Moran, while he was on his hot lap a red flag was called, ending his hopes of a front row start. The weather was tricky and as soon as Q2 started, it rained again but we stuck to our decision and it was the right call“.
Second row start is no cause for cocern for Moran, who was upbeat and confident that the team will do well tomorrow. “I think it was a good result after the difficult conditions on the track. I did a fair lap without taking any risk which at the end put me on a very good position to start both races tomorrow. The track was very tricky today and although I would like to get a better position for tomorrow I’m confident I can fight for the top positions. I am very grateful with the team for their support!”
The Ecuadorian is not the only one looking forward to the race tomorrow, “in the end, we got Pole position and P4, which is a perfect start for tomorrow. The crew did a fantastic job keeping their cool in this stressful qualifying session and we are definitely looking to a good race tomorrow” ended Treml.
The 14-lap Round 5 race is scheduled for Sunday, 14th May at 11.00am (local time) and Round 6 later that day at 4.15pm.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler will compete in the full TCR Asia Series 2017 season with two Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR with car #2 driven by Kantadhee Kusiri of Thailand and car #32 driven by Diego Moran of China. The team is supported by Liqui Moly, Remus, VW Motorsport, Hella Pagid, Drexler drivetrain, Motec rims, Recaro and Eibach.
Live stream of the TCR Asia Series can be found on www.tcr-series.tv at these times:
Sunday, 14 May 2017
11:00 – 11:35 TCR Asia Series (Round 5)
16:15 – 16:50 TCR Asia Series (Round 6)
TCR Asia Series 2017 Calendar (updated)
10 – 12 March 2017 – Sepang, Malaysia
21 – 23 April 2017 – Zuhai / China
12 – 14 May 2017 – Zhuhai / China
01 – 02 July 2017 – Bangsaen / Thailand
26 – 27 August 2017 – Shanghai / China
06 – 08 October 2017 – Zhejiang / China
