Bangalore's Raj Bharath secured the pole position on his debut weekend with Meco Motorsport in the Formula Masters China Series at the Zhuhai International Circuit here today.
The 18-year-old Raj clocked one minute, 45.884 seconds while Ren Nagabuchi (Japan) was second (1:47.341) and Adrian Wright (Australia) completed the top three in qualifying.
Raj had suffered some electrical issues during official practice and was unable to set even a single timed lap and lost quite a bit of track time in the process.
With two qualifying sessions scheduled later on, it started raining as the pitlane went green, so all drivers, including Raj, went out on wet tyres. The rain stopped within a few minutes and the track dried up which saw drivers switching to slicks.
The team however opted to let Raj stay out on wets as more rain was expected, and eventually the call paid off as the showers returned and Raj managed to secure pole by a margin of 1.5 seconds.
