Aiden Moffat didn’t make any excuses for missing out on the top ten in qualifying for his home British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, admitting that he ‘just didn’t get it right’.
Moffat put his Mercedes-Benz A-Class in 12th on the grid for the opening BTCC race, less than half a second away from pole position.
Despite the relatively good effort, Moffat was not too bothered by his grid position, especially when reminded that he scored a podium at the circuit in 2015 after qualifying in a similar position in 11th.
“I had good pace in the car but I failed to really show how strong the car has been,”said Moffat to TouringCars.Net. “I could have been so much better, but I’ve never been a great qualifier to be honest. I tried my best, but you really have to nail it as it’s such a tight track.
“It’s crazy how close it is, but it’s the same for everyone, so there’s no real excuses, we just didn’t get it right.
“I got held up by [Jason] Plato, who just stopped in the middle of the chicane, as well as Hunter Abbott and Stewart Lines. I got held up on three different flying laps, so it’s really hard to get a clear lap around here.”
Moffat, like most of his rivals, believes that overtaking around the 1.27 mile circuit will be difficult, but added that his target remains the same as when he took his maiden podium last season.
“It’s a hard track to overtake, but we want to try and get in the top ten in race one and then take race two as it comes – if we could repeat last year it would be nice. I’m going to be pushing hard and trying to progress, I’m not going to just focus on defending, we want to attack and move up the field.”
Round 19 takes place at 11:50 BST and you can follow the action live on ITV4 or through the TouringCars.Net live event page.