CHENNAI: Championship leader, Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman of Malaysia, astride a Honda, clinched the vital pole position clocking a lap record of one minute, 42.909 seconds in the SuperSport 600cc class in the third round of the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship on Saturday.
With bright sun shine and the track surface touching 63 degrees celcius after two days of overnight rains, Kamaruzaman quickly grabbed the pole position. His team-mate Makoto Tamada powered his own Honda to second on the grid with 01:43.593 ahead of Mohd Zamri Baba who clocked 01:43.713.
Upon clinching the pole, Azlan said: “After clocking in fastest during the morning session, I was even more determined to take the pole position. The new lap record was a bonus.”
In the Underbone 115cc class, Harlan Fadhillah set a new record surpassing Rafid Topan’s timing set yesterday during the practice session. He returned a timing of 01:59.474 that beat the record by 0.346 seconds.
But it was short lived as Ahmad Afif Amran quickly bettered that time in the opening minutes of the qualifying session with 01:58.672 to take the pole position and to his luck the qualifying session was red flagged following a crash between Mohd Hafieenaz Mohd Ali and Mohd Adib Rosley.
Both riders were reported to be fine. Hafieenaz rode back to the paddock on his own power but Adib fared a little worse, suffering from a sprained ankle.
The defending champion, Hadi Wijaya who was second fastest with 01:58.703 and Ferlando Herdian third with 01:59.248, followed Afif.
Indian wild card entrants Sumit Lucas Toppo and Arunagiri Prabhu qualified 11th and 14th respectively in the Dream cup events.
The results (qualifying session – top 3):
SuperSports 600cc: 1. Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (MAS), 01:42.785s (new lap record); 2. Makoto Tamada (JPN), 01:43.593s; 3. Md Zamri Baba (MAS), 01:43.713s..
Asia Dream Cup: 1. Hiroki Ono (JPN), 01:56.230s; 2. Md Dwi Satria (INA), 01:56.600s; 3. Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (THA), 01:57.068s.
Underbone 115cc: 1. Ahmad Afif Amran (MAS), 01:58.672s (new lap record); 2. Hadi Wijaya (INA), 01:58.703s; 3. Ferlando Herdian (INA), 01:59.248s.