Nash is close but not close enough in Brands Hatch qualifying

Close but not close enough

World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) racer James Nash’s hopes of a top 12 in qualifying for tomorrow’s two races on the famous Suzuka circuit in Japan were unfortunately dashed with the reigning British Independent Champion finishing the session in 19th place.

James Nash, Ford Focus S2000 TC, Team Aon

Photo by: Brad Fox

In the event Nash’s best time was just 3 tenths away from making the all important top 12 (from which the pole position is sorted in a later Q2 session) but only good enough for P19 starts for Sundays races such is the closeness of the competition in the WTCC.

James Nash: “ Of course I’m very disappointed to miss out on Q2 and the top 12 shootout. In my mind I thought we had a chance of a top 10 which would have been handy for race 2 when the top 10 are reversed.”

“ I managed to get P10 in the final Free Practice and then set a better time still in qualifying but as we’ve seen today the gap between hero and zero is next to nothing. It is disappointing to be starting so far back but that’s what we’ve got.”

“ We are quick in the first sector but losing out in the second through the esses. It’s something we’ll have to think through tonight to see what we can do to get the car turning in better. Today I got the maximum out of the car and while we’re close on times, we aren’t close enough.”

“ The field is so tight that you sense already that they’ll be some very tough battles tomorrow. I just hope that I can avoid any carnage and have two clean races and make up a few places and maybe earn some Championship points too.”

Source: James Nash