Tung Takes Commanding Pole for 4H Buriram

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Ho-Pin Tung took Jackie Chan DC Racing to pole position for the Four Hours of Buriram in spectacular fashion on Saturday, over six-tenths faster than his nearest competitor.

Tung and co-drivers Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent will start Sunday’s race, round 3 of the Asian Le Mans Series season, from the front of the grid in their Jackie Chan DC Racing-run Oreca 03R Nissan.

Tung set the original fastest lap time on his second lap and continued to better his pace a further three times until he reached a 1:26.954 near the end of the session.

The prototype qualifying session was red-flagged midway through as the Ligier JS 53 of PS Racing, the only CN entrant, stopped on track with Tira Sosothikul at the wheel.

The running soon got back underway, however, allowing Andrea Pizzitola to put in a fast lap that was only good enough to close Tung’s lead down to 0.622 seconds. This puts the No. 25 Ligier JS P2 Nissan second on the grid for Algarve Pro Racing.

Race Performance will start the race from third, alongside the second, Judd-engined Algarve Pro Ligier.

Tockwith Motorsports continued its pace from Free Practice 2 to take LMP3 class pole position with Nigel Moore at the wheel, setting a time of 1:30.154.

Wineurasia and PRT Racing completed the top three in class, with their Ligier JS P3 and Ginetta LMP3 respectively.

Alessandro Pier Guidi scored GT pole position with a lap time of 1:31.858, putting himself and Team BBT co-drivers Anthony Liu and Davide Rizzo just 0.031 seconds clear on the timesheets.

It was Rui Aguas in the similar Ferrari 488 GT3 of Spirit of Race in second position, while Tom Blomqvist put the No. 90 BMW M6 GT3 of Team AAI into third.

Alex Riberas and Matt Griffin completed the top five for DH Racing and Clearwater Racing, respectively, with their pair of Ferraris.

The race is set to start at 12:15 p.m. local time on Sunday, and can be streamed on the series’ YouTube channel.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.