PETALING JAYA: Defending champion Petronas Syntium Team are well-positioned to win the 12-hour Malaysia Merdeka Endurace Race (MMER) overall title for the third consecutive time as they will start from pole at the Sepang International Circuit on Saturday.
The team will have two Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 cars positioned at the front of the GT3 grid when the race starts at midnight.
MMER debutants Thomas Jaeger, Lucas Wolf and Luca Ludwig clocked the fastest average time of 2:03.184 to take pole while local ace Dominic Ang, Bernd Schneider and Jono Lester will start from second after clocking 2:03.428.
“We are quite happy with the results, especially as this is our first time at this track. The weather is pretty warm and we have to get used to the conditions. As for the race, there will be no team orders ... so it can be anybody’s race,” said Jaeger.
Dominic, who is looking to defend the title, said his team would try to win the race despite starting from second position.
“If they (the other car) win the race, we’ll be happy for them but we’ll go all out to attack in the race and try to win it,” said Dominic.
In the GT Cup category, former Malaysian F1 driver Alex Yoong, Jacky Yeong and Ashraff Dewal of the Tiger Absolute Racing Team are the top qualifiers in 11th spot in 2:10.749 in an Audi R8 LMS car.
Fastest in the Sports Production class was the four-man BTB Racing Team of Patrick Ng, Marcus Chye, Tan Pye Seng and Zen Low, who clocked 2:22.462 to be 14th fastest in the Lotus Evora GT4.
In the Touring Production class, Hunter Racing Team, spearheaded by team owner Jim Hunter and Gavin Bullas and Grant Johnson, were fastest in 17th spot in 2:25.962.
