The first-ever Audi one-make championship, the Audi R8 LMS Cup, burst into life under brilliant sunshine at the Shanghai International Circuit today, with Hong Kong’s Marchy Lee grabbing pole position for the opening round of the inaugural season. Lee, racing for Audi Ultra, put in a scorching lap of 1:49.241 seconds on the 4.603km track, more than half a second quicker than nearest challenger Alex Yoong of Malaysia in the Audi GQ. Third fastest was another Hong Kong driver, Adderly Fong of Sino Vision Racing making a spectacular sportscar debut in the Audi R8 LMS Cup, while Jeffrey Lee of Chinese Taipei, competing in the Amateur category, will line-up alongside on the second row of the grid.
With each of the 16 Audi R8 LMS Cup cars allocated just one set of Michelin tyres for qualifying and both races, several drivers elected to go out on track for just a few laps in order to preserve their rubber for the two races this weekend. Team Betterlife’s Wang Jian Wei of China topped the time sheets at the start of the session, but Fong quickly snatched provisional pole position with the first lap of the weekend in less than 1:50 seconds. Next of the front runners out of the pits was Lee, who climbed up the time sheets before thundering to pole two thirds through the session. Wang will start from the fourth row of the grid, with fellow Chinese driver, Sun Zheng of Team Erdos Xinan alongside. Eric Kwong of AK Racing was second fastest in the Amateur category, ahead of Hong Kong artiste Aaron Kwok, the Audi R8 LMS Cup Driver. Rounds 1 and 2 of the Audi R8 LMS Cup will be held tomorrow (Sunday), run over 18 laps with a rolling start.
No.
Comp
No.
Name
Class
Entrant
Time
1
1
Marchy LEE (HKG)
Audi Ultra
1:49.241
2
8
Alex YOONG (MAL)
Audi GQ
+0.572
3
27
Adderly FONG (HKG)
Sino Vision Racing
+0.613
4
7
Jeffrey LEE (TPE)
Am
Pauian Archiland
J-Fly Racing
+0.876
5
9
WANG Jian Wei (CHN)
Team Betterlife
+0.984
6
33
SUN Zheng (CHN)
Team Erdos Xinan
+1.411
7
6
ZHU Hu An (CHN)
Team Zhe Jiang Aotong
+2.457
8
77
SUN Chao (CHN)
P D GROUP Audi Team
+2.959
9
23
Eric KWONG (HKG)
Am
AK Racing
+3.119
10
88
Aaron KWOK (HKG)
Am
Audi R8 LMS Cup Driver
+3.320
11
68
MAK Hing Tak (HKG)
KLM Team
+4.382
12
3
Byron TONG (HKG)
Am
SMD
+4.744
13
99
HUA Xia Wei (CHN)
Team Chengdu New Elements
+5.085
14
66
ZHANG Ran (CHN)
Am
Audi Castrol
+6.581
15
13
Adrian FU (HKG)
Am
FuSpeed Racing
+10.297
16
75
Eric HSIANG (TPE)
Am
J-Fly Racing Team
+14.523
(Am) Amateur Cup Competitor
Audi R8 LMS Cup Official Website at: www.audir8lmscup.com
