Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Niels Langeveld “knows he is able to do it” after finishing TCR Europe qualifying at the Nürburgring in third position.
Langeveld was the only one of the four Hyundai Elantra N drivers to make it into the second section of qualifying on Saturday morning in Germany, and the Dutch driver ended the session less than a tenth of a second behind pole sitter Isidro Callejas.
Despite his strong pace – which also included setting the fastst time of all in Q1 – Langeveld admitted he was slightly disappointed not to repeat his performance in the second section of qualifying.
“The only unfortunate thing so far is that I missed out on pole position by such a small amount,” said Langeveld.
“To be honest, I can be happy but it’s a pity that the other drivers are not on the pace. Looking at things personally, finally I have a weekend which is going well from FP1 to Q2.
“In the past, I had several issues with the car but I know I am able to do it. Now the potential is coming out finally; I’m here to be the best, show the pace we have and to win.“
He also went on to explain that he also could have claimed pole, had it not been for a slow second sector on his fast lap.
“There’s always somewhere you can make or lose time and I thought I missed the potential of three-tenths in the second sector,” added Langeveld.
“I had a little bit more understeer in Q2; the balance of this car is important because it’s quite a long wheelbase, so you have to hit the sweet spot and every step we took so far was the right one.”
Race one of the TCR Europe series at the Nürburgring is set to take place later today at 14:55 CEST (13:55 BST).