Luca Filippi admitted that he was disappointed to only qualify in 19th for the season finale of the FIA World Touring Car Cup at Aragón in Spain, whilst Team Mulsanne team-mate Jean-Karl Venray managed fifth.
Filippi is racing at Aragón for the first time, although the rest of the field has prior experience of the Spanish circuit, with the previous round of the championship also having been staged at the circuit just two weeks’ ago.
Despite being disadvantaged compared to his rivals, Filippi had hoped for a more competitive showing in the season finale.
The Italian had been 16th quickest in second practice, the highest up the timesheets he managed all day, 1.8 seconds off the pace, but come qualifying he ended up two tenths of a second slower than he had been earlier in the day.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t the qualifying we were hoping for on our side of the garage,” said Filippi. “My first lap wasn’t great, as I had traffic and I had to overtake a car in front.
“Still, it was not too bad, but in my second attempt then I made a mistake and I had to abort the lap, so then the time was over and we couldn’t improve.
“It’s a shame, because obviously it was very challenging as everybody has driven here last weekend and I wasn’t [able to], in my case.”
Filippi is still keeping positive spirits about the potential of his Alfa Romeo, as he still seeks his first top ten finish of the year.
“I think the potential was good. Tomorrow we have some time to recover and enjoy the last races of the season.”