Charlie Robertson posted the
fastest time of the day’s running, a 1:48.127 in the second of the day’s pair
of 90-minute track sessions on the 5.4 km Shanghai International Circuit.
That time was enough to see off the
challenge both of reigning World Champions, Toyota Gazoo Racing, with their
all-conquering hybrid LMP1s and the long-established Rebellion Racing.
The two Ginettas had topped the
times in the first session too, the cars 1-2 in the times in the closing half
hour before rival team Rebellion Racing was pressured into responding, using a
new set of tyres to better Ben Hanley’s best time in the #5 in the final minute
of the running. The times set by the two AER-powered G60-LT-P1s were still
significantly quicker than the two Toyotas.
Lawrence Tomlinson said, “This
may only be free practice but make no mistake everybody is looking to find out
what performance they have for qualifying tomorrow and for the race on Sunday.
It’s always good in those circumstances to be at the right end of the
timesheet and it’s of course very good indeed for a Ginetta to be at the top of
a World Championship leaderboard for the very first time, this early in the
programme.
“While the whole team have been
buoyed up by the day they are under no illusions that there are tougher tasks
to come over the weekend. They will go into qualifying on Saturday, and the
four-hour race on Sunday now though knowing that the pace is there and that
there are results to be had,” he concluded.
Home-grown Ginetta talent Charlie
Robertson said, “I’m delighted with the pace we’ve shown all day. We were
quick, but there is more to come tomorrow and on Sunday I’m sure. Everyone has
been working very hard but the competition here have a lot of experience in the
championship. They’ll be looking to and grab back some of our advantage
tomorrow and Sunday. We’re going to focus our efforts to stay at least one step
ahead of them!”
