Roberto Colciago described his early practice performance in the TCR International Series at Monza as a ‘day and night’ contrast to his performance in the previous weekend in Belgium, after topping second practice.
Colciago had been third quickest in the morning’s first session, before going even better in second practice to be one of only two drivers to break the 2-minute barrier at the fast circuit.
The M1RA driver had to carry the maximum 30 kg of success ballast in the previous event at Spa-Francorchamps, and he believes that was the cause for him not picking up a single point all weekend.
“It’s a day-and-night contrast with the situation at Spa, where I could do nothing with the car, because of the heavy success ballast,” said Colciago. “Here it is much better, and at least the car behaves normally and reacts to the changes.
“Compared to my free practice in Spa, this is very good news. The car is now really good and I can drive really well. Maybe I was on newer tyres compared to the others, but I also felt good on old tyres and I have a good pace.
“It’s the home track for a lot of drivers this weekend but I lived 12 km from here so I’ve been to this place many times…
“It’s only the start of the weekend, so I don’t want to make many predictions…”
Colciago heads into Saturday’s qualifying session and first race fifth overall in the drivers’ championship standings on 50 points, 41 behind the series leader.