Josh Files says that it was a ‘mega’ qualifying session for KCMG, after he helped team-mate Attila Tassi to secure third and the Hondas to lock-out the second row of the grid for the first TCR Europe race at Monza.
Having already written off his own title campaign, due to being 60 points adrift of the leader, Files has focused on helping his young team-mate in the title race.
A red flag with only four minutes remaining in Q1 gave the JAS Motorsport-backed KCMG team the opportunity to strategise, with Tassi at that point being outside the cut-off for Q2.
Files offered his team-mate a slipstream, and in doing so hauled Tassi into the top twelve to give him a chance at a top grid position in Q2.
A second slipstream from Files helped Tassi to secure third, whilst Files himself put in a lap good enough for fourth with his effort, even though he did not have the benefit of a tow.
“Attila does a great job, and he receives information really well, so we work very well as a team and I think that today showed that,” said Files to TouringCars.Net.
“I managed to get myself into Q2 with third, and at the time of the red flag Attila was still outside of Q2 positions, so we went out together, did some slipstreaming and pulled him up to third.
“That was perfect, so we did the same for Q2. I managed to get fourth on my own, whilst Attila was behind me and he got third.
“We also had the Autodis Hondas behind us in the train and they managed to get in there as well, so it’s good for JAS and for Honda and good for us as a team as well that we’re the fastest Hondas, so it was mega.”
Even though Files believes that he and Tassi have a good chance of fighting for the lead at the start, he admitted that pole-sitter Jean-Karl Vernay’s straight-line speed advantage is such that they would not put up much of a fight.
“There’s nothing to say that we might not be able to lead and edge out both Azcona and Jean-Karl into Turn 1, but anything is possible from behind, so we just have to try and get through the corner and fight from there.
“Vernay has a 13 kph top-speed advantage over us, so in theory he’s just going to drive past and drive off. We’re not even going to put up too much of a fight to him, as it’s a losing battle really. But we can edge out Azcona.”
Files reiterated his focus on helping KCMG to secure the Teams’ championship, with the Hong Kong-based team currently seeking to close a 57-point deficit to leaders Target Competition.
“It’s an outside chance [for Attila] and I’m even more of an outside chance, so the best thing to do now is to get good points as a team, because we really want to win the Teams’ championship.
“It’s more important for Attila to finish in front of me to try and close the gap to Azcona and [Dušan] Borković, but Azcona is obviously a little bit faster than us this weekend so it’s going to be really tricky.
“Any good result on the drivers’ side of things is a bonus.”