Gordon Shedden lamented a frustrating day at the Hungaroring, as the Audi Sport driver finished in a points-less 18th position in the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race.
Having failed to break into the top 20 all day prior to race one, Shedden found himself battling in the lower ranks of the field in the first encounter, enjoying a battle with wildcard entry Attila Tassi for 18th position.
The Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil racer blamed the poor performance on an issue which his team have yet to identify in his Audi RS3 LMS.
“Something went on in race three in Marrakech and I think we’ve still got the same issue,” explained Shedden to TouringCars.Net. “How we get to the bottom of it is still a work in progress, but hopefully tomorrow is a new day and we can find a bit of a better solution, because it’s not where we expect to be right now.
“It’s possibly [damage] but we just need to go through it, because it doesn’t feel like what I’ve had previously. We just need to try and make it feel like what I had previously, and it will be OK.
“It’s been a frustrating day today, but you’re going to have these, and I’ve just got to try and do a better job tomorrow.
“I’ll obviously give the engineers as much information as I can, and we’ve just got to try and go through it methodically step-by-step, because on a race weekend sometimes it all happens quickly. The way it’s been today it’s been very quick, FP1, FP2, quali and then straight into the race. The guys are doing a great job trying so many things and we’ve just got to try more.
“I don’t think it’s something we can fix in the race. It’s not a change, I think it’s something a bit more hardware-related.”
Despite his struggles, Shedden added that he enjoyed clean racing with Tassi, with the pair passing each other several times off-camera during the race.
“I’ve not got a scratch on the car – it’s a result! I had a really good race with Tassi and I got on the inside of him and gave him a bit of room and then he got on the inside of me left me a bit of room, and both cars came back unmarked.
“Yes, it was for the minor placings, but the intent was there from both of us to make it to the end.”