Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers Johan Kristoffersson and Benjamin Leuchter are confident that they will have good race pace in their Volkswagen Golf GTi cars, despite having struggled for qualifying pace in 2019 so far.
Kristoffersson was easily the best of the four Volkswagen drivers in Saturday’s WTCR sessions, going fifth in second practice before qualifying in seventh for the first race of the weekend.
The Swede put his pace down to feeling increasingly confident in the car, as well as benefitting slightly from the 10 kg reduction in weight given to the German cars overnight.
“I’m feeling more comfortable in the car in the last two sessions,” said Kristoffersson to TouringCars.Net. “Yesterday was tricky, this morning was better and again qualifying was a small step better.
“I still have things that I have to improve which I think can make me more comfortable. I’m not sure if it’s going to bring a lot more pace, but it’s going to make me more comfortable and more consistent on the laps. That’s what we are trying to work on now.
“In the end there is no magic in motorsport, you just have to try to get every bit together on the fast lap, because you only have one lap with these tyres. It seems we are still lacking a little bit of pace to the quickest guys, but we made a huge jump since Marrakech, because there we were nowhere.
“In the end I think the position where we are was pretty fair to the pace I had.”
Kristoffersson is confident in the race pace of the Golf GTi and he hopes to be able to make up ground in the latter stages of Saturday afternoon’s first race.
“I’m really looking forward to the race, to see where we are and to be in a position where it’s a little bit more of a fight.
“I’ll try to make a good launch, stay out of trouble in the first ten laps, and see if we can do something in the end.”
Kristofferson’s team-mate Benjamin Leuchter echoed his comments about race pace, with the German, who qualified down in 25th and as the slowest of the Volkswagen drivers, hoping to make up ground.
“The guys are working hard to solve the things we are still struggling with,” said Leuchter to TouringCars.Net. “I guess today is a good day because it seems that we found something, but I don’t want to now be that optimistic at the moment.
“Let’s see what the race brings and how we behave in the race, as our race pace in Marrakech was quite strong.
“The weather seems to suit us a bit more – it’s cooler and there is cloud preventing sun on the tarmac, so it seems to be that these conditions are a bit more suited to us. We have to hope for more rain and more weather like this.
“I’m quite confident for the race now, so let’s see what we can do.”