Stian Paulsen was pleased to be close to the pace of points leader and fellow CUPRA racer Mikel Azcona in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at Assen, also earning him the reverse-grid pole position for race two.
The Norwegian was tenth fastest in the grid-deciding Q2 session, ultimately ending up as the second-best CUPRA driver after PCR Sport’s Mikel Azcona had his time reinstated.
“I’m pleased because it’s difficult to fight with the other guys on this track, so I’m really pleased about that,” Paulsen said to TouringCars.Net. “I actually had three fast laps which surprised me that I could do three at the same speed. It’s looking good – I’m really happy!”
With a first-ever TCR pole position for race two, and ninth for race one, Paulsen admits that he is going to go for a cautious setup in Sunday’s reverse-grid race to maximise hischances of being able to hold on to the position.
“Today we’re going to not use the best tyres, and we’re going to try something different with the set-up which may not work, so today we are gambling a little bit.
“But tomorrow we will do a safe set-up and for sure tomorrow is the main race for me – we will aim for a podium – and today we will aim for a top five.”
With track limits proving to be a contentious issue, Paulsen admits that he constantly had the issue in his mind during qualifying, resulting in him being one of the drivers to not face any issue with the stewards.
“I was thinking about [track limits] all the time. Every lap I was thinking to be on the safe side, because like at Spa this year, in Q2 four drivers had their lap times deleted, so if you just did a slow lap you’d be fine.
“I thought this could be the case here too, so I always thought about being inside the lines. There was one time I thought I was out, so I did three fast laps in Q2 just to be sure that something wrong didn’t happen.”