Esteban Guerrieri insists ‘we are where we want to be in terms of position compared to our main rivals’ after he qualified in sixth in the FIA World Touring Car Cup on Saturday at Pau-Arnos in France.
Guerrieri had earlier been fourth and 15th in a mixed first two practice sessions for the Argentine at the twisty circuit in the south of France.
Come qualifying, Guerrieri was fifth in the first part, less than three tenths of a second from the quickest time, before he slipped to sixth in Q2, missing out on progressing further to Q3 by just over a tenth of a second.
By qualifying in sixth, the Münnich Motorsport driver will start in fifth for the partially-reversed race one, and then sixth for race two, giving him a shot at a good score in both races.
As Guerrieri sits second overall in the drivers’ standings, 20 points adrift of leader Yann Ehrlacher, he was pleased that he will start one place ahead of his main rival in the opening race on Sunday, even though Ehrlacher was ultimately just faster than Guerrieri in qualifying.
“It was an intense day, both because we had to get to grips with a new track and because the field was so tight again,” said Guerrieri.
“I enjoyed it though, and I think we finished the day having extracted the maximum result – there was maybe one tenth left, but it would not have been enough to make a difference in Q2.
“We don’t have the fastest car here, but we are where we want to be in terms of position compared to our main rivals for the Championship.
“That was very important today so that’s the first job done, but we’ll keep digging.”
Münnich Motorsport Team Manager Dominik Greiner echoed Guerrieri’s sentiments that the Honda Civic is not the fastest car around the French circuit.
“Overall, it was a satisfying enough qualifying,” added Greiner. “We saw throughout practice that we did not have the fastest package, so to end up with two cars in the top ten and with chances for both to score strong points in the races was a good result.”