Joel Eriksson leads practice, forced to sit out Shanghai races
Joel Eriksson signalled his intentions by topping the times in practice ahead of his guest appearance in the China GT Championship in Shanghai, although his weekend ultimately dissolved following technical problems.
DTM regular Eriksson was drafted in to race for BMW customer squad FIST-Team AAI in round three of China’s top GT series, driving a BMW M6 GT3 alongside Betty Chen.
Despite having no previous experience of the championship or the Shanghai International Circuit, Eriksson immediately set the outright pace in practice and then backed it up with third in qualifying as he led the BMW contingent of cars.
However, technical problems later developed that sidelined Eriksson and Chen for both of the weekend’s two races.
“It was obviously a shame not to actually do the races – that’s what I came here for,” says Joel Eriksson. “I still enjoyed the Shanghai experience and I felt immediately comfortable in the BMW M6 GT3. We were going really well in practice and qualifying so I’m sure we could have had a strong result. Thanks to the team for having me; I’ll be back to give it another go!”
Joel Eriksson will be back on China GT Championship duty for the season-finale – also staged in Shanghai – on 11-13 October. The Swede is now flying back to Europe to compete in next week’s DTM round at the Norisring.
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