Cheung Chi Sing took Pole position today when he crossed the line 1.470 seconds ahead of second placed qualifier, Adrian Henry D’Silva. The skies remained clear throughout the day and stayed bright and sunny throughout the qualifying session for the Season Opener of the Asian Touring Car Series at the Sepang International Circuit today.

Asian Touring Car Series regular, Danny Stacy Chau, took third fending off new team-partner, Frank Yee in fourth while Man Ting Yu completed the top five in today’s session.

For Cheung, having more than a one second gap to D’Silva will not mean much if he does not have a good start during the race tomorrow. “Finishing with a win will all depend on the start. If I can get a good start then the race should be okay and I should be able to keep the pace I had today for the win” said the Hong Kong driver, taking the first pole of the season for the newly renamed Team IMSP-S&D.

Completing a lap in 1:15.602 has given D’Silva the chance to line up in the front row next to Cheung in second. Although aiming for the win, it may not be easy for the Malaysian to overtake the pole sitter.

“Cheung is driving a different race altogether. He is one and a half seconds a lap faster than me, so basically even though I am starting from second position, I will be competing with the second group, who are within one second of one another” said D’Silva after the Qualifying session.

“Tomorrow, if the weather holds like this, I think I should be able to perform better. The car seems to prefer a cooler track temperature as compared to the hot track during practice, which explains the time difference between practice and qualifying” he concluded.  

Third place starter, Danny Chau will have to wait and see how the race will pan out as he is not very familiar with the driving style of D’Silva. “I have to wait and see at the start, I do not know how Adrian races where he makes and loses time, so I will have to wait and see”.

When asked how he thinks the weather will hold, “You never know, not even all the Formula 1 teams can predict the weather, if it rains we will just have to use wet tyres!” ended Danny Chau with a laugh.

Round 1 of the Asian Touring Car Series will be held at 4.10pm while Round 2 will be held at 5.30pm on Sunday, 19 April 2009 on the North Track of the Sepang International Circuit.