Matt Neal admits that he was ‘quite relieved’ to secure a front row grid position for the ‘diamond double’ final British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, after posting the second fastest time on Saturday.
A late lap in the shootout qualifying session gave Neal a front-row start alongside Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff, although the three-time champion had no answer to the older-spec Honda driver’s pace.
Neal admits that he was relieved to show strong pace, having not run his new FK8 Civic without success ballast all day before the frantic second qualifying session.
“The only nerve-wracking thing was that we hadn’t run without weight all weekend, so it was a bit of a leap into the unknown considering that you were only going to get one hit on the tyres,” said Neal to TouringCars.Net. “I’m quite relieved – I was a bit nervous about it beforehand.”
Neal is hoping for dry weather in Sunday’s three races, believing that the newer Civic won’t perform as well if the conditions prove to be changeable.
“I’m concerned about the weather tomorrow. We haven’t been so strong in the rain this year, and I still don’t think we’ve got our finger on the pulse for that, so I hope it’s dry!
“I’m pretty sure we know what [the issue] is now, but the way the weight distribution is, it makes it a bit more tricky in slippier conditions. When we can exploit the car’s strengths through the faster stuff we’re OK, it’s the getting in and getting out of the corners in the slippy stuff.”
Neal is unconcerned about tyre wear during the longer race to conclude the weekend, having carried out some simulation race runs in testing at Snetterton earlier in the month.
“We did some race runs in the test and they were really good, we were strong right until the end. The trick will be if it’s wet there will be a lot of shredding.
“The prime tyre, the medium one which we’re all on, will be fine and it will be strong until the very end. But if it’s wet, that might be an issue on tyre wear.”