Alex MacDowall and Jason Plato have qualified 6th & 7th respectively in today’s qualifying session on the Brands Hatch GP circuit ahead of tomorrow’s three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car rounds on the popular Kent track.
It was a strong session for 19-year old Alex, who went into it with great optimism having worked on his setup during the morning’s free practice. With great pace and good high-speed balance, Alex ventured straight into the top three on his flying lap, underwhelmed by the threat of rainfall that hit during the previous support race sessions leaving the track damp in places.
As the track dried out, the times improved including Alex’s, however he slipped down to P5 and with a last gasp flying lap from Neal, was later pushed into P6.
Alex commented, “I think P6 is good for us. It was really close. 0.05s would have put me 4th, and 0.1s would have placed me 3rd. I’m still getting used to the car and trying to get it to my liking. We’ve not yet got it where we want it, but the car is still quick and there are a lot of positives to take away from qualifying.”
And on his thoughts for race one, starting from the third row, Alex confirms, “It’s meant to be wet tomorrow, so that will be a different game. We’ll try and get a good setup and see how it goes.”
In the sister Cruze, with 45kg success ballast on board, Jason struggled to put the perfect lap together, still not completely satisfied with set up following missed running in the first practice session, in which the team opted for a precautionary engine change.
Jason finished the session 7th, around 0.2s off the pace he had anticipated for the GP circuit. He explained, “We lost the first session when we had to make a precautionary engine change, which was nothing we could have foreseen”.
Having missed some additional time in FP2, Jason adds, “At the moment the car is a little tricky to drive, it’s not very progressive or forgiving, which makes it difficult to run on the limit. I wasn’t able to attack, but we’re only a couple of tenths off. My best was a 1:32.6s, but it should have been a 1:32.4s, which is about 0.7s quicker than last year (in the Lacetti). That’s about where we’ll be in this car.
Had I have had the car more to my liking, which would have come from more running, I’d have done a similar time to Matt (Neal), with the additional weight.”
And on the ominous pace of the turbo charged Fords, in which Chilton claimed pole with 0.471s over 2nd placed man, Shedden, an animated Jason comments, “its 1.5s quicker than the best lap last year. The turbo cars are in a different league to everyone else. They have enormous power advantage.”
View all the action from Brands Hatch live on ITV4 tomorrow, and keep updated with the team on www.chevroletbtcc.co.uk