Defending Macau GT Cup winner Ye Hong Li edged rival Darryl O’Young for pole position at the Guia Circuit.
A remarkable string of laps early in the session set the tone for Ye, the TORO Racing Porsche driver working his way down to a 2:20.982s mark by the midway point in the session.
Practice pacesetters O’Young (Craft-Bamboo Mercedes) and Alexandre Imperatori (Meidong Racing Porsche) were next in line as the red flag came out with 12 minutes to go to clear debris off the circuit.
Part of that debris had come from Imperatori himself after he clashed with Audi driver Lu Zhi Wei early in the session.
Things didn’t get any better for Imperatori when the session resumed, a brush with the wall adding further damage to his Porsche. That meant he didn’t improve on his earlier time and slipped down to fifth as others went quicker in the closing stages.
Ye, meanwhile, lowered the benchmark to 2m20.281s late in the session, that time good enough to secure pole for tomorrow’s opening race.
O’Young had to settle for second, the margin 0.35s, while Luo Kai Luo put an impressive drive in his TORO Racing Mercedes to third.
Chen Wei An was the best-placed Audi in fourth ahead of Imperatori, with Min Heng (TORO Racing Mercedes) and Marchy Lee (Uno Racing Team Aston Martin) sixth and seventh.
Macau driver Lo Kai Fung qualified eighth in his ZUVER Audi, ahead of David Pun Kwan Lum (Uno Racing Team Aston Martin) and Zhang Ya Qi, who crashed his Audi late in the session.
