Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Kantadhee Kusiri claimed pole position for race two of the combined TCR Asia / TCR China series in Zhejiang, beating fellow Thai racer Tin Sritrai to the top time.
In the second of the TCR Asia and TCR China joint qualifying sessions it was this time an Asian driver who came out on top, with Kusiri being the only driver to drop into the 1 minute 34 second lap times.
The Thai driver traded top times with title rival Sritrai early in the session, before emerging as the pace-setting driver after 15 minutes. The Volkswagen racer then improved again with just under two minutes to go to claim pole by two tenths of a second.
Sritrai put his Honda in second, keeping his title hopes alive, ahead of the second Engstler Motorsport car of Diego Moran in third.
The leading TCR China qualifier was NewFaster’s Andy Yan in fourth, who was directly ahead of his fellow Audi racer and team-mate Huang Chu Han in fifth.
R Engineering’s Abdul Kaathir took sixth, ahead of Teamwork Motorsport’s Filipe Clemente de Souza in seventh, with the Macanese racer being third in the TCR China class.
Race one of the joint TCR Asia and TCR China series takes place at 14:25 (07:25 BST, 08:25 CEST) local time, with race two following at 16:30 (09:30 BST, 10:30 CEST).
Qualifying results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 2 | Kantadhee KUSIRI |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 10 | 1:34.861 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 9 | Tin SRITRAI | |
Team Thailand | Honda Civic TCR | 10 | 1:35.102 | 0.241 |
| 3 | 32 | Diego MORAN |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:35.406 | 0.545 |
| 4 | 82 | Andy YAN Cheuk Wai* |  |
NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:35.856 | 0.995 |
| 5 | 66 | HUANG Chu Han* | |
NewFaster | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:36.033 | 1.172 |
| 6 | 23 | Abdul KAATHIR Mohamed Mustaffa |  |
R Engineering | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 1:36.398 | 1.537 |
| 7 | 26 | Filipe de SOUZA* |  |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:36.448 | 1.587 |
| 8 | 31 | Alex HUI* |  |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:36.633 | 1.772 |
| 9 | 5 | Jasper THONG Wei Heen | |
Audi Hong Kong | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.720 | 1.859 |
| 10 | 62 | Alex FUNG* | |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:37.043 | 2.182 |
| 11 | 99 | Alex LIU Lic Ka | |
Elegant Racing Team | SEAT León TCR DSG | 12 | 1:37.122 | 2.261 |
| 12 | 39 | LAI Wee Sing | |
R Engineering | Honda Civic TCR | 12 | 1:37.382 | 2.521 |
| 13 | 9 | DENG Bao Wei* | |
LEO109 Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:37.542 | 2.681 |
| 14 | 98 | Eric KWONG | |
Elegant Racing Team | SEAT León TCR DSG | 12 | 1:37.560 | 2.699 |
| 15 | 65 | Douglas KHOO Kok Hui | |
Viper Niza Racing | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:38.090 | 3.229 |
| 16 | 58 | LO Kai Bong | |
HE Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:38.140 | 3.279 |
| 17 | 791 | ZHOU Hao Wen* | |
AVM Racing | SEAT León TCR | 10 | 1:38.206 | 3.345 |
| 18 | 66 | CAI Hong Yu | |
TrackFun-Linky Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:38.478 | 3.617 |
| 19 | 21 | LIN Li Feng* | |
NewFaster | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:38.621 | 3.760 |
| 20 | 77 | HU Hao | |
LEO109 Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:39.645 | 4.784 |
* Denotes TCR China competitor