Shanghai : Poles for Harmony and Climax

David Chen and Ralf Aron bagged a pole position apiece amidst the flurry of red flags in Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS qualifying at Shanghai this morning.

Those stoppages also prevented the championship-leading Porsche from putting space between itself and the five other contenders, while an approaching typhoon could add further spice to this year's final race – and potential title decider – on Sunday.

Neither Harmony nor Climax have a championship to worry about, but it's their Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG that start the final two races from pole. Chen set his time at the end of Q1, which featured no less than three stoppages – two of which, ironically, were caused by the team's other 296 GT3 – while Aron relived Finn Gehrsitz of P1 just before Q2 concluded early due to Vollgas' stationary Porsche.

James Yu and Franky Cheng made it a Silver 1-2-3 in Q1. The latter is best placed of the title contenders but has reigning champion and another challenger, Anthony Liu, alongside him in.

Craft-Bamboo's Daniel Morad completed Q2's top three.

Recent resurfacing work and slight changes to the track profile ensured the fastest times were five seconds faster than the last time Fanatec GT Asia qualified at Shanghai in 2019.

Q1: CHEN CHECKS IN

Three red flag periods across the 15 minutes meant most cars only completed two flying laps.

Yu set the best of those bankers after the first stoppage, which was caused by Harmony's stationary #99 Ferrari. The Audi Sport Asia Absolute driver posted a 2m01.733s to lead Bob Yuan by three tenths and Origine's other Porsche driven by points leader Lu Wei by another half-second. There were no further changes until after the third stoppage.

Andre Canard initially jumped up to third and Liu to fourth at Lu's expense, while Ben Porter slotted AMAC's Porsche into sixth. But there were significant improvements on the final round of flying laps when Harmony's other Ferrari grabbed pole from Yu – who also improved his time but not position – by 0.175s.

Cheng was only 17th before action resumed but gained sufficiently to push the Pro-Am contingent further back. It was led by Liu, who fought for space at the restart, gained a clear track and ultimately put three grid places between himself and Lu.

Yuan starts 16 points adrift of his Origine team-mate but just behind Liu in fifth. He also shares row three with Canard's Absolute Corse Ferrari, which could provide a useful buffer to the #4 911 behind.

Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim must beat Lu to have any hope of remaining a title contender come Sunday but starts one place behind him in Triple Eight JMR's Mercedes-AMG, while Hu Yuqi gave Climax the Am class pole with ninth overall.

Q2: CLIMAX BEATS ABSOLUTE

Absolute Corse’s Ferrari had already shown promising pace in Q1 and appeared on course for pole in the second 15-minute session thanks to Gehrsitz posting consecutive fastest times.

Aron, meanwhile, didn’t immediately join the session. But his timing proved immaculate; the stoppage that followed soon after he posted fastest lap would also ultimately bring Q2 to an early close. 2m00.285s was a fraction faster than the Estonian managed in practice but crucially 0.172s under Gehrsitz’s best.

Morad slotted Craft-Bamboo’s Mercedes-AMG into third and ahead of the two best placed championship contenders: Leo Ye Hongli (Origine) and Alessio Picariello (Absolute) who also found significant time just before the red flag. They lie second and third in the points ahead of Saturday’s race when they will be looking to close their 16 and 19-point deficits ahead of Sunday’s finale.

Doing so would give Lu something to think about given his co-driver Laurin Heinrich starts Race 2 from ninth.

Ahead of him are Dorian Boccolacci (Phantom Global), Maximilian Goetz (Craft-Bamboo) and debutant Dylan Pereira (FAW Audi Sport Asia).

Results are HERE