Aurélien Comte praised the work of the DG Sport Compétition team to repair his Peugeot 308 TCR after the last round, allowing him to secure a maiden pole position in first qualifying for the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) in Japan.
Comte proved the pace of the Peugeot was no fluke at Suzuka, after his team-mate Mat’o Homola topped first practice, to blow the competition away in qualifying for race one to take a maiden pole position by just over a tenth of a second.
Although the Frenchman has already taken an outright race win this year, it is the first time that he has scored a pole position.
He praised his team for repairing his car after a crash at the start of race three in Wuhan left them with a significant amount of work to do upon arrival in Japan.
“It’s very, very cool,” said Comte. “My first pole position in WTCR is fantastic for me and for the team.
“Big, big thanks to all the team because it was very difficult to repair the car after Wuhan. But they repaired it in two days when it arrived in Japan and this is fantastic for them. I am very happy.”
Comte then followed up his pole with only his second visit to Q3 in the main second qualifying session, earning himself a third-place starting position for Sunday’s main race.
The 30-year-old would likely have been even faster, but a significant slide at the Spoon Curve cost him time and he ended up almost nine tenths from Kevin Ceccon’s pole time in the end.
“For today I’m satisfied. My lap [in Q3] was not bad but I had a lot of oversteer in Turn 1 and Turn 14 and for this it was not possible to be faster.
“I had one [sideways] moment, I try but it was okay. The team did a really good job to get the car ready after the crash in Wuhan so big thanks to them.”