Dan Lloyd is expecting it to be a ‘struggle’ to challenge the Audi of Mehdi Bennani for victory in the opening TCR Europe race at Monza, after setting his time with a tow whilst Bennani went alone.
Brutal Fish Racing’s Lloyd was the quickest Honda at the high-speed circuit in Italy, ending qualifying just 0.035 seconds adrift of his Moroccan rival.
Lloyd was pleased to put in his best qualifying performance of the season at a circuit which has the potential to expose one of his Honda’s biggest weaknesses.
“The best qualifying before was P3 at Paul Ricard, so to [secure a front-row start] here at Monza is a really good effort,” said Lloyd to TouringCars.Net.
“The Honda is an amazing car but its weakness is straight-line speed, so to be just behind the Audis is a very, very good job from myself and the team.
“I had to get behind a car [for a tow]. We had some good tactics in the team between myself and Pepe [Oriola], which definitely worked for both of us in Q1. In Q2 I actually got myself behind another car, which helped.”
The Brit had to utilise a slipstream from another car to complete his best timed lap, whilst Bennani set his time whilst running alone.
It is that difference in top speed which Lloyd expects will make challenging for the victory a challenge in race one later on Saturday.
Lloyd also highlighted the difference in the Compensation Weight between the cars, with Bennani’s Audi carrying 30 kg around Monza whilst Lloyd’s Honda has to carry no Compensation Weight at all this weekend.
“I think the race is going to be more of a struggle, just because of how fast the other cars are; I mean Bennani did it with no slipstream at all.
“Around Monza you’re looking at around six tenths advantage, so he’s got a lot of pace and with 30 kg on board they’re in a different league at the moment.
“It’s a really good result, some good points and I’m very happy.”
Lloyd was surprised that the Audi RS3 cars came to Monza without a change in the TCR Balance of Performance following their success at the previous event at Zolder.
“I’m really surprised that they’ve kept the BoP, because at Zolder they had a crazy amount of pace at a circuit which isn’t a high-speed circuit.
“We saw it in WTCR as well, so they’ve obviously improved the car a lot over the winter. I think they have got the edge at the moment.
“Even Nicolas Baert with 60 kg [of Compensation Weight] is P7, so they have some very, very good pace. I’m quite surprised nothing has changed, but we’ll see.”