The Thai Super Series continues to grow, fresh from an appearance on the streets of Singapore, alongside Formula One, the series this weekend returns home for Races 5-6.
The usual GT3 brands in TSS this season – Honda, Audi, Lexus, Lamborghini and Ferrari – have been supplemented this weekend by the arrival of the dramatic Aston Martin Vantage GT3 being run by Malaysia’s Viper Niza Racing. So, this new arrival – which has an awesome exhaust note – is a car that rival teams are going to have to keep an eye out for.
In the Friday FP1 session, the quickest time went to the #25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II shared by Sandy Stuvik and Akash Nandy who posted a best lap of 1:34.839, just a tenth ahead of the #11 Honda NSX of Andrea Gagliardini and Jacopo Guidetti with another B-Quik Absolute Audi, this time the #26 of Henk Kiks and Eshan Pieris next up, three tenth further back – and in fact such was the competitive nature of this field, the top seven were covered by just 1.077 seconds. Fourth quickest was the new driver on the block, former Formula One driver Markus Winkelhock who has been drafted into the #55 Audi alongside Vincente Floriendo for the remainder of the season.
Quickest in GT3 AM was the #28 Lamborghini of former Super Car GT3 champion and Vattana team owner, Chonsawat Asavahame, who is sharing with Pitsanu Sirimongkolkasem.
Meanwhile in Super Car GTM the fastest time in FP1 went to the Vattana PSC Lamborghini shared by ‘Aki’ Asai and Ananthorn Tangniannatchai ahead of the Porsche of championship leading Sathienthirakul brothers, Munkong and Tanart.
In GTC newcomer Adam Khalid (i8 Vantage GT4) with a best lap of 1:44.300 was eight tenths up on the Ford Mustang of veteran racer Craig Corliss with Kris Vasuratna in the fastest of the factory-run Toyota Supras third on the timesheets.
In FP2 in was the #55 Audi that kept the four rings brand at the top of the timesheets as Markus and Vincente took a grip on proceedings while the form pairing of the morning session, Sandy and Akash, were just a tenth and a half adrift.
Also getting itself in the mix at the top of the timesheets was the #89 Singha Motorsport Team Thailand Ferrari 488 GT3 shared by former Super Car champion Voravud Bhirombhakdi and Dutch former Japan Super GT factory Honda driver Carlo Van Dam.
Fourth quickest went to the #65 Vantage GT3 shared by Douglas Khoo and Dominic Ang with the championship leading #11 Honda NSX wrapping up a top five that was covered by just 1.1 seconds.
In GTM it was the two Lamborghinis of Vattana PSC Motorsport that wound up at the top in FP2, with ‘Aki’ and Ananthorn once again occupying P1 while the Sathienthirakul brothers were snapping at the heels of the Italian machines in P3.
In GTC it was again Adam in the i8 Vantage GT4 who topped the timesheets on his TSS debut weekend, with a time three tenths slower than this morning, but he was just half a tenth ahead of Adisak Tangphuncharoen in the #26 B-Quik Absolute ‘Gen 1’ Cayman, who put in a blistering session, with Thanathip Thanalapanan in the #28 KTM X-Bow GT4 third quickest.
Qualifying is Saturday morning with a full afternoon of racing Saturday.
With TSS Media Release
