Trade Price Cars Racing’s Mark Blundell admits he “overestimated” and was “overconfident” in his crash during qualifying for the opening race of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship season.
The Le Mans winner and former Formula 1 driver was 30th in the opening practice session, and improved to 22nd in the following session.
During qualifying, Blundell was improving on his time on fresh wet tyres before he locked up and went straight on into the barriers at Druids, to bring out the second red flag of the session.
He told TouringCars.Net that he paid the price for being “overconfident” and going beyond the limit.
“I just overestimated it and was overconfident. And that’s racing, you push and push and you find your limits,” said Blundell.
“Then sometimes you go beyond them. And sometimes when you go beyond them you can pull it back.
“So I paid the price.”
Although Blundell is enjoying his series debut this weekend despite the adverse conditions, he admits he is struggling to adapt to the front-wheel drive Audi S3, which is vastly different to anything he has driven previously in his career.
“It’s been different, it’s a big big change of experience for me – front-wheel drive, 400 horsepower, no aerodynamics, but heavy car with lots of roll,” explained Blundell.
“Lots of weight transition and rear-wheel steer, so there’s loads of stuff that are very different to what I’m used to – I’ve always been taught not to hit the kerbs because it’ll damage the car.
“So I have a huge amount to learn. Once I’ve learnt it, hopefully we’ll make some good strides but it’s going to take time.”
With the adverse conditions looking set to continue into today’s races – with support races already delayed by heavy fog – Blundell believes his BTCC race debut will be difficult.
“It’s going to follow the trend of the weekend, what more could you wish for on your weekend debut?
“I’m just about getting the full story from every angle. But it is what it is. It’s the same for everybody so we’ll just have to get on with it.”