British team bamboo engineering enjoyed their strongest-ever World Touring Car Championship qualifying session at Monza, with Alex MacDowall qualifying third and James Nash sixth.
Having been sixth and 13th in first practice, drivers MacDowall and Nash improved to second and fourth respectively in second practice. Without the aid of any slipstreaming, the team focussed on the baseline set-up of the car throughout the morning’s running.
MacDowall suffered from a broken front brake disc during first practice, limiting his running slightly. “We had a slight issue with a broken front disc to start with,” explained MacDowall to TouringCars.Net. “We found a crack in them so we had to change that which lost us a bit of track time. We only really got that one lap in on the brakes feeling how they should. I was braking a bit too early into some of the corners and I thought I could have braked a lot later. It was a decent lap time but it wasn’t as quick as what I’ve done here in the past.
After qualifying in third – his best-ever result – MacDowall admitted that he was happy with his performance, especially given the forecast of heavy rain for raceday.
“I’m on the inside and if it’s wet I’m confident in the wet so we’ll see what happens,” added MacDowall. “The Chevrolet’s a good car in the wet so I know I’m not going to be struggling for grip at the front. Chilton’s maybe going to be a bit nervous, although he’s been doing it for a long time so hopefully he won’t be! I’ll get on with it and if we get a good first lap I’ll then try and pick him off.
“I don’t see why we can’t get an outright podium. Hopefully the other drivers don’t know the wet lines, although I’m sure Tarquini does. My best results have come in the wet.”
Despite his two drivers qualifying in the team’s best-ever grid positions, Team Principal Richard Coleman was actually slightly disappointed with to have lost out on a front-row grid position.
“We’re slightly disappointed to be honest,” said Coleman. “I think in reality, pace-wise, we were second and fourth today really, so to be third and sixth we’ve got to be slightly disappointed. But you’ve got to take the positives that if you’re disappointed with third and sixth then things aren’t too bad.
“It’s ironic in some ways – Alex being P3 and on the inside may actually be a slight advantage over P2 on the outside. But it’s just what lady luck gives you in the first corner. If we get through race one unscathed then that would be good.”
With a forecast of 80% rain for Sunday, bamboo will hope to use the morning warm-up session to aid with setting the car up for the afternoon’s races.
“We’ll sit down with the guys tonight – we’ll have a plan for the wet and the dry and we’ll implement that in the morning,” added Coleman. “If it’s consistently wet all day tomorrow at least we have a warm-up session to prepare.”