Gordon Shedden was left to rue his luck after he suffered a power steering failure during British Touring Car Championship qualifying at Snetterton.
Despite qualifying within a second of polesitter Colin Turkington’s pace, the lack of power steering for the entirety of the 30-minute session hampered Shedden’s running considerably, with the Scotsman 16th on the grid for tomorrow’s first race.
Speaking to TouringCars.Net, the championship leader was frustrated after his worst qualifying performance in the championship since Silverstone last year.
“We had no power steering. Even Popeye can’t get around here without power steering so that was all it was good for given what I had,” quipped Shedden. “Obviously it wasn’t fast enough to get a good grid position but hopefully we can sort the problems and have a better day tomorrow.
“I would have hoped we’d have been in the top six. That’s where the aim was, none of the times were outside of what we thought we could do but it just didn’t work for me in that session.”
Despite being unable to show the true potential of his Civic Type-R, Shedden remained confident that his long-run pace would help him up the order.
“I think it will be okay – the car was looking good in the test and it’s really strong; I don’t have any issues with the car, it was just the couple of dramas in quali that I’ve mentioned.”
And although closest championship challenger Jason Plato qualified in third, Shedden was in no panic about losing ground as the season enters its second half.
“He’s got to get to the end,” he said. “Everyone will have their good luck and their bad luck, so I’ve got ride it out and make the best of it.”