Attila Tassi has ruled out challenging Jean-Karl Vernay for victory in the opening TCR Europe race at Monza, with the Hungarian instead focused on getting ahead of title rival Mikel Azcona in race one.
Tassi qualified as the best Honda driver at Monza on Saturday, benefitting from a slipstream provided by KCMG team-mate Josh Files in both Q1 and Q2.
But the Hungarian, who is currently fourth overall in the drivers’ championship standings, has ruled out challenging for victory, with Audi’s pole-sitter Jean-Karl Vernay being a significant eight tenths of a second ahead of Tassi.
“I’m quite happy with this qualifying result today, not only for me but also for Josh,” said Tassi to TouringCars.Net. “I can thank the team a lot, and Josh in particular, as yesterday he helped me a lot with his good data from FP2 and also from the onboard camera.
“It was an important part of the weekend, so I analysed the data all night and luckily I managed to put a lap together by learning his driving style, so I’m very happy with it.”
Tassi is instead focused on getting the upper hand over rival Mikel Azcona, who is one place ahead of him on the grid and 38 points ahead in the title race.
“With Azcona I think we have a chance, but I don’t think we have much of a chance against the Audi. Yesterday I had a chance to go behind [Vernay], and after the first straight he had pulled out a five-car gap, so even with the slipstream I don’t think we have a chance.
“I don’t care if Jean-Karl wins. If he wins both races he could be in the top four [in the points] and he could be in title contention, but first Azcona is my aim for us to overtake and then we will see what happens next.”
Tassi believes that his best chance to get ahead of Azcona will be at the start in the run-up to the first chicane.
“I think we can have a good start as both of us are good at the starts. We could get ahead of at least Azcona and maybe Vernay as well. If we are ahead of Azcona then we just have to keep him behind us.”