The first Audi pole position of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge season has been achieved by Phantom Pro Racing’s Kang Ling, who was fastest in qualifying for this afternoon’s Race 1 at Suzuka.

Update: The #29 Audi’s pole time has been deleted after a post-session penalty for breaching track limits was issues. The #16 ABSSA Motorsport McLaren 720S of Keita Sawa will start Race 1 from pole.

The Mercedes-AMG of Dani Juncadella/Anthony Liu will start tomorrow’s Race 2 from pole.

The first of two back-to-back qualifying 15-minute sessions saw the secondary drivers behind the wheel to set the grid for Saturday’s Race 1, with the second determining the starting order for tomorrow’s race.

The 33 competitors made for significant traffic as they head onto the 5.8km Suzuka circuit, with only three silver drivers among them.

While the #500 Team 5ZIGEN Nissan R35 GT-R Nismo had been fastest in Practice, it was the #16 McLaren of Sawa that headed the times early, setting a 2:02.438 with 10 mins remaining in the session.

Only seconds later, Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the #88 was on his first hot lap of the circuit when a red flag was called after #25 Enkei Racing Japan Porsche and #18 Porsche Centre Okazawi both ended up in the gravel with a little over nine minutes left to run.

The session restarted with 9:05 left on the clock, and as the field completed installation laps, the Hirobon jumped top second fastest  with a lap just 0.023 off the #16 McLaren, with #37 Mercedes of Liu moving third with four minutes remaining.

King Ling then put the #29 Audi into provisional pole with a 2:01.995 as the McLaren had made its way back to the pit lane, with not enough time left challenge the Chinese driver’s time, making it  two silver drivers in the top two positions.

The #888 with Prince Jefri Ibrahim at the wheel was pushing as the clock hit zero – as Ling’s time remained unbeaten to secure the first Audi pole of 2023 – with the Mercedes-AMG 20th fastest.

The second Triple Eight JMR entry driven by Prince Abdul Ibrahim was 15th, one position behind championship leaders Inthraphuvasak/Bachler in the #911 Porsche.

Anthony Liu was penalised for impeding in practice, and will serve a 10-place grid penalty for Race 1, and undertake a stop-go penalty in the first three laps.

Race 2 Qualifying

The immediate Race 2 qualifying session saw Feeney in the #888 and German Luca Stoltz in the #88 Triple Eight JMR entries as the cloud cover was interrupted by sunlight increased track temperatures.

Five minutes into the session, the first benchmark time of Dani Juncadella #37 Mercedes 2:01.294 was set with Feeney in P4 and 0.422s back, with Stoltz in P6.

A red flag was issued with 8:11 to go as the #25 Porsche of Kondo – which had set the seventh fastest time at that point and had caused a red flag in the previous session – went into the wall between 130R and the chicane, with the #88 at the head of the pit lane queue awaiting the green flag.

The #25 was pulled out by marshals and was able to head back to the pits under its own power, showing little signs of damage – returning to the circuit as the session returned to green.

Stolz, eighth fastest at the point, led the field back out, as Mercedes-AMGs filled the top four places – Juncadella from Goetz, Lind and Feeney – ahead of a trio of Porsches.

Stoltz, with clear air in front of him, set a fastest first sector before Juncadella went quicker and those around them– including Feeney – couldn’t improve on their first push lap.

Stoltz crossed the line with a 2:00.621 to go fastest just as Juncadella set a faster sector 2 on the way to snatching the top spot back with a 2:00.344.

Feeney then went faster than his previous best to momentarily sit third, before Goetz then Pilet pushed the Australian back to fifth with two and a half minutes remaining.

Another push lap from Feeney saw a faster first sector and improvement, as Lind in P8 pushed Feeney to sixth – Parente making that seventh – with little more than 60s remaining, as Juncadella and Stoltz could not be toppled from first and second, with Goetz making it a Mercedes-AMG one-two-three.

New Zealander Harker and Australian Porter qualified 22nd and 27th respectively, while a second red flag issued as the clock hit zero had little consequence on the session’s outcome.

Race 1 is at 14:20 local time/15:20 AEST.