Gordon Shedden: “It needs to be better” despite practice performance

Gordon Shedden appeared disappointed after FP1, despite both himself and Honda Racing Team team-mate Matt Neal taking the top two positions on the timing screens.

Shedden set the fastest lap of the morning session with a time of 52.267 around the 1.2mile Knockhill circuit, with Neal just a further five thousandths behind, but the Scot still believes there’s much more work to do to keep at the sharp end.

“It’s going to need to be better than that,” Shedden told TouringCarTimes. “It’s nice to get some good kind of ‘safe’ laps under our belt but we would expect to find a bit more pace than that going to qualifying. It’s about equal what I qualified last year, the car feels OK, it’s a good base to start on.”

An additional positive that both Shedden and Neal could take from the opening forty minute session was just how close the two Honda Civic Type-Rs were in terms of laptimes, with just 0.005 seconds separating the two.

“It’s nice to have both cars up there we’ve got to work on it,” he continued. “I’m sure everybody will come back towards us so we’ve got to work on it and that’s what we’ll do in FP2.”

Knockhill provides Shedden his one opportunity to race in front of his home fans, and while he admits it offers no advantage in terms of speed, the atmosphere it creates does give a slight psychological advantage.

“It’s great,” he said, while signing countless programmes and pieces of Honda merchandise. “It’s the only chance I get to race in Scotland every year and from that point of view it’s fantastic. The support I get is incredible, I don’t think it finds you anymore speed but it certainly gives you that extra bounce and spring in your step.”