KUALA LUMPUR: Afiq Ikhwan Yazid emerged the fastest driver overall in what was a stuttering start for the inaugural Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix today.
The morning sessions for all categories, which had been scheduled to start at 8.45am, was cancelled after the FIA track inspector deemed the circuit not ready for the event. The practice sessions started later at 2pm after remedial works were carried out.
Race director M. Ravin said the organisers were only able to close the public roads used for the race at 7.30am instead of 6am as planned which had caused the delay.
"An unforeseen delay in closing the roads had occurred. We had to make sure the barriers were in place to ensure safety and had also made some slight alterations to the circuit to accommodate the GT3 cars," said Ravin.
The delay however did not stop Afiq, who is competing in the KL GT City Cup GTM and Lamborghini Super Trofeo classes, from clocking a commendable one minute and 26.799 seconds lap around the 3.2 kilometre street circuit during free practice.
Afiq, who is driving a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo LP620, said he is hoping to carry his good form into the weekend.
"It just went really well for me today, the team did a good job of setting up the car for this track," said the Starspeed Racing driver.
"Qualifying in strong position will be very important tomorrow and I hope that I can continue with some good pace and hope nothing goes wrong with the car."
Italians Davide Rizzo and Eduardo Liberati, who are also competing in the Super Trofeo class, were the second and third fastest overall after notching 1:27.079s and 1:27.297s respectively.