Asian Le Mans: Morgan, Mercedes set Shanghai practice pace

Shanghai International Circuit opened to Asian Le Mans Series teams Thursday for the first day of Free Practice sessions for this weekend's 3 Hours of Shanghai.

In Free Practice 1, OAK Racing Team Total followed up its two wins to open the Asian series with a fastest time of 1:41.735 set by Ho-Pin Tung in th team's #1 Morgan-Judd. Eurasia Motorsport was next in its ORECA-Nissan at 1:42.974. Craft-Bamboo Racing was the top CN class team with its #77 Ligier JS 53 EVO drove by Kevin Tse with a rime of 1:48.474. Team AAI's #92 BMW Z4 led the GT category with the fastest lap time of 1:47.689 set by Morris Chen.

Free Practice 2 took place later in the afternoon. The 2013 Asian LMS driver's runner-up, James Winslow, driving for Eurasia Motorsport #27 clocked a fastest time of 1:42.798 to lead LM P2. Only 0.22 seconds behind was OA Racing's No. 1 car at 1:43.018, set by Ho-Pin Tung.

Team Avelon Formula missed Free Practice 2 with a battery problem which let Craft-Bamboo Racing once again take the top spot in CN class at 1:51.292. Team AAI's #90 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 led the second place Clearwater Racing with 0.3 second difference , and the battle among all the GT cars remains fierce.

Teams will have qualifying session Friday morning.

Practice 1 results
Practice 2 Results