Rob Collard says he is ‘gutted’ to have lost out on the opportunity to bag a front row starting position for the first British Touring Car Championship race at Donington Park, feeling that he had the pace to challenge for a front row grid position.
Collard had been lying in second in the times when the red flags flew with two minutes of the original half hour left to run, which resulted in the clock being reset to five minutes.
That gave everyone a chance to put in a new time on slick rubber on the drying track – with Collard having earlier been one of the first to switch to the dry tyres.
A final red flag stoppage scuppered Collard’s hopes of further improving, leaving him sixth on the grid for the opening race.
“I’ve been very pleased with the car all day – the car’s run really well,” said Collard to TouringCars.Net. “We knew after FP2 that the car was in a good position, so I was gutted when I was lying in P2, hundredths off a pole, with two minutes to go and the red flags came out, and they decided to reset it and give five more minutes. That to me was as good as it was going to get.
“We then started the re-run, and just got boxed in the traffic really. On my last lap I caught Matt Neal and Dan Welch down at the Old Hairpin, and we lost basically two seconds on the last lap.
“I backed off coming down the back straight to make a gap so I could get over and push in the very last sector, and as I started my last lap we went purple in the first sector, and then there was a red flag again with Mat Jackson being off. It was a bit bizarre why he went off where he went off, if I’m honest.
“I just wish I hadn’t backed off now and given myself some space. I think Jack [Goff] did exactly the same, we both put ourselves in a position to go again on the next lap. It’s just unfortunate that the red flags came out when they did because I think it would have been a very different story with two BMWs on the front of the grid.”
Despite the turbulent qualifying session leading to a third row grid position, Collard is optimistic for Sunday’s trio of races – having won in 2009 when racing S2000 BMW machinery.
“I really like Donington Park as a circuit. I won here in the BMW, and I’m really looking forward to it. I very nearly won here last year, and we had one of the craziest races in touring car history when Árón Smith went off across the grass down at the Craner Curves – it was a wacky race.
“I’m hoping that we can get three solid results – that’s what we’re aiming for. We lost a bag full of points and I was very disappointed in the outcome at Brands Hatch in race two, so we’re here to make amends, be strong and hopefully get more podiums.”