2017 British Touring Car Champion Ash Sutton believes he is in good stead ahead of the opening TCR Europe contest in Barcelona today [20th October] after qualifying sixth.
He made it through the first part of qualifying with no issues on his first competitive outing in the WestCoast Racing-run Volkswagen Golf GTI before posting an effort of 1:54.367, half a second behind pole-sitter Attila Tassi.
That leaves him on the third row for both races – his first competitive outings overseas.
Speaking to TouringCars.net post-session, Sutton praised the grid sizes and believes WestCoast have done everything possible in order to prepare him for his series bow.
“The grid in general, its great to see so many cars,” said Sutton.
“For the race, I’ve not raced against them but they’ve also not raced against me, so the WestCoast boys have done everything they possibly can for me to make sure I’m prepared enough and the Golf has been mega. So we’ve got a good idea of where we can go setup-wise and I think we’ve got a nice little package.”
He also said the VW Golf rates on a par with the Honda Civic Type R FK7 he drove to a double victory in TCR UK at Oulton Park in June, having now sampled two different TCR cars in 2018.
“Each car has its pros and cons, each has its own traits but personally I like both cars, they’re both good to drive,” he added.
“As long as they’re in that working window, they deliver a similar pace. The Golf was really dialled in in Q1, but we just didn’t have the tyres to go again in Q2. That’s a shame because it deserved better than P6.”
The opening race the 2.8 mile Catalan circuit gets underway at 17:30 CEST.