SASAKI STORMS TO SHANGHAI ASTON MARTIN ASIA CUP POLE

Team Reckless driver Kota Sasaki (Japan) stormed to pole position for the eighth round of the Aston Martin Asia Cup at Shanghai, supporting the 2008 Formula One Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix. Sasaki put in a stunning lap to be 0.611 seconds ahead of Britain’s Danny Watts (GR Asia/Noble Group) who takes second on the grid.

Third on the grid is Ringo Chong, the Singaporean driver fresh from a third place finish at his home event last time out. Rounding off the second row is Sri Lanka’s Dilantha Malagamuwa who comes to Shanghai in joint lead of the Championship with pole sitter Sasaki, ensuring the title battle will remain red hot. With Round Five winner Mel Choo and Tunku Hammam on the third row, the Aston Martin Asia Cup is set to start the Shanghai action in fine form when it opens the day’s racing tomorrow.

Aston Martin Asia Cup – Qualifying Classification

Round 8 - Shanghai

Position /Number/Driver/Nat/Entrant/Time1 30 Kota Sasaki JAP Team Reckless 2:18.3682 60 Danny Watts GBR GR Asia 2:18.9793 98 Ringo Chong SIN Ringo Chong 2:19.4634 6 Dilantha Malagumawa SRI Speed Sri Lanka 2:19.6025 69 Mel Choo SIN Mel Choo 2:20.5846 51 Tunku Hammam MAS Tunku Hammam 2:21.3557 64 Jean-Marc Merlin FRA Jean-Marc Merlin 2:21.9898 44 Kuo-Tong Hsieh TPE Kuo-Tong Hsieh 2:22.7309 88 Philip Ma HKG Team HongKong Racing 2:22.86410 36 George Ong SIN George Ong 2:23.90111 28 Eric Cheung CAN Eric Cheung 2:23.93212 7 Frank Yu HKG Team HongKong Racing 2:24.55013 9 Andrew Luk HKG Andrew Luk 2:24.59814 23 Simon Waters AUS Concord Energy Racing 2:25.09815 32 David Lai SIN David Lai 2.26.22716 33 Nasrat Muzayyin USA Concord Energy Racing 2.29.303