Esteban Guerrieri was pleased to be able to take the fight to the Hyundai drivers in qualifying for the first FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at the Hungaroring, after he put his Honda in second on the grid.
A late lap put the Argentine on the front row of the grid for the first race, with the Münnich Motorsport driver having earlier had his best lap time removed for exceeding track limits, leaving him in a vulnerable position until he went within three tenths of pole-sitter Norbert Michelisz.
Guerrieri, who was also at the bottom of the timesheets in second practice after having two lap times removed, was relieved to have pulled a lap out of the bag, explaining that the overall balance of his Civic had been improved throughout the morning.
“It was not excellent because excellent would be P1 but congrats to Norbi, it’s nice for him to be on pole on his home soil,” said Guerrieri. “For us we knew we had the potential and we found the balance of the car a little bit different on this qualifying [lap] compared to this morning so we had to catch that.
“But in the end we managed quite a sensible balance overall, the Honda Civic Type R was behaving quite good and at least we could fight in between the Hyundais when they looked to be quite okay.”
Guerrieri believes that it will be difficult to take the fight to the Hyundai drivers in the race, due to his final qualifying lap being on the very edge of the limit.
“We will see what we can do in the race, but so far it’s where we want to be. There was nothing else left on that lap, it was a good lap for me and I believe that’s the limit we have, but also probably his [Michelisz’s] limit so it was a fair qualifying, it was nice.
“For the race I don’t know. I’m a bit slower in the first sector compared to them, I feel I am braking fine, I feel I am doing all good. I want to see how we are compared to them in the third sector because in the infield, in the twisty section we are quite good.”
The first WTCR race from the Hungaroring takes place at 15:25 CEST (14:25 BST) and will be broadcast live on Facebook.