Qualifying struggles in Spain for Honda Racing drivers
Motorland AragónHonda Racing drivers endured a gruelling WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup qualifying session ahead of the third round of the season at Motorland Aragon.
In searing conditions, with temperatures pushing 35C, Esteban Guerrieri fared the best of the foursome by dragging his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR to the 16th-fastest time as pre-event changes to the Balance of Performance and the addition of compensation weight for the first time in 2021 took their toll.
His stablemate Nestor Girolami improved on his final flying lap, though to 20th position only.
As a result, ‘Bebu’ is due to start Race One from 21st due to a three-place grid penalty incurred at the previous round.
Tiago Monteiro was less than a tenth further back in his ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Civic Type R TCR, while Attila Tassi was unable to set a time in qualifying after stopping on his first attempt at a flying lap in Q1.
That problem was later diagnosed as a broken fuel pump and means the Hungarian, who is second in the WTCR Drivers’ Championship, is due to start both of Sunday’s races from 22nd.
In terms of our performance, we absolutely struck the maximum and could not have got any more out of the car, so I'm pleased on that front as we always expected a tough session. What's a little bit strange is there's something a little bit funny with the physics; the exchange rate between kilograms and seconds has suddenly increased dramatically here. For tomorrow, we are at least within touching distance of the points so will try to gather what we can in the circumstances.
We tried our best throughout practice and qualifying, but from the start of the day we were completely out of the game. We were trying different things to improve the car but it didn’t work. Unfortunately it was a really hard day for us but we are there in the championship and we need to keep pushing. Now with the 60kg compensation weight we are struggling a lot and in these temperatures that hurts more than in normal conditions. We need to have a look into the data, analyse everything and come back stronger tomorrow.
Obviously today has been very, very frustrating. After getting 70kg in one go we can’t expect miracles, but I’m very much surprised by the time difference between ourselves and our competitors. There is certainly something to be analysed from these big changes in lap times we have seen. What we can say is we have done our job and showed our performance all the time, we’re here to race and not to go into games.
We knew that we would struggle this weekend with the 70kg extra weight compared to Estoril, but unfortunately I didn’t even get the chance to set a time in qualifying. When I started my first fast lap, midway through I had a problem, which turned out to be the connector to the fuel pump breaking, and that was my session over. Tomorrow will be a tough day starting both races at the back but let’s see what we can achieve.
This was a really tough day and not the results we would like to see. What we can at least see is that the maximum was extracted from the car in terms of the lap time, so to be that far down - and with such a gap to the front - is a little bit strange for us. Tomorrow is about damage limitation and trying to score as many points as possible from where the drivers are.
