Huff sets pole position for TCR Malaysia’s inaugural race

Rob Huff, the last driver entered in the inaugural event of TCR Malaysia, imposed his experience and set pole position for the first round of the new series at Sepang International Circuit. In Q2, he posted a lap of 2:15.928 at the wheel of his TeamWork Motorsport Volkswagen Golf GTI, beating the two Hyundai i30 N cars run by the Liqui Moly Team Engstler and driven by Luca Engstler and Théo Coicaud.
Huff dominated Q1 with a lap of 2:15.867 that beat Engstler’s 2:16.875 by a little more than a second. The rest of the field was more than two seconds behind the Briton, with Coicaud third in 2:18.270. 
Martin Ryba and his Brutal Fish Racing Golf GTI set the first provisional fastest lap of 2:18.737, but the Slovak was soon demoted to third when Huff completed a lap of 2:16.190, followed by Engstler in 2:16.875. Coicaud, and Charlie Kang (2:18.315) moved up to third and fourth, while Ryba improved to 2:18.716 retaining the fifth place.
Positions remained frozen until the dying seconds, when Huff’s second attempt resulted in the new record lap, with Paul Ip, Kai Jordan, Adam Khalid, Douglas Khoo and Michael Choi ranking from sixth to tenth and completing the list of drivers allowed to Q2.
In the second part of the session, Engstler improved significantly his Q1 time, jumping on top of the timesheet with a lap of 2:16.224. However, this was not enough to prevent Huff from winning the pole position for tomorrow’s Race 1, as the former World Champion posted a 2:15.928 that was not faster than his Q1 time, but good enough to beat Engstler’s by nearly three tenths. Coicaud improved nine tenths compared to Q1 (2:17.379) and secured third place on the grid, while Ip (2:18.078), Kang (2:18.177), Malaysia’s young rookie Khalid (2:18.367), Jordan (2:18.646) and Khoo (2:18.656) filled the positions between fourth and eighth. Ryba was not able to repeat his Q1 lap time and ranked ninth, followed by Choi.
Khoo’s Viper Niza Racing CUPRA and Jordan’s Liqui Moly Team Engstler Volkswagen will share the front row of the top-eight reverse grid for Race 2.
Tomorrow’s races will be streamed live at www.tcr-series.tv: Race 1 at 11:55 local time (04:55 CET) and Race 2 at 15:50 local time (08:50 CET).

TCR Malaysia – Qualifying
1) 2:15.928 – Rob Huff (TeamWork Motorsport, Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR)
2) 2:16.224 – Luca Engstler (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N TCR)
3) 2:17.379 – Théo Coicaud (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Hyundai i30 N TCR)
4) 2:18.078 – Paul Ip (KCMG, Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR)
5) 2:18.177 – Charlie Kang (Indigo Racing, Hyundai i30 N TCR)
6) 2:18.367 – Adam Khalid (Liqui Moly Team Engstler, Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR)