Jordi Oriola targeting the top in qualifying at his favoured Salzburgring circuit

Jordi Oriola hopes to be able to turnaround a troubled season for Target Competition at the Salzburgring, a track where he has a strong record, in the team’s new Honda Civic TCR, and aims to grab a tow from a rival due to his preferential pit allocation.

Oriola was second fastest in FP1 and third in FP2, with the WestCoast Racing Honda of Gianni Morbidelli fastest in both sessions on Saturday, with the Honda seemingly the car to beat ahead of qualifying.

“The Honda is good everywhere, it’s a very good car,” said Oriola to TouringCarTimes. “In Imola we just had some trouble in Q1 so I had to start from the back, so we couldn’t manage to show our pace, but we were fast.

“I also love this track. Every time I’ve come here I’ve been in the top three in qualifying. It looks simple, but any mistake, you lose everything. If you make a mistake and lose a little speed, you lose five-six tenths on the straight.”

At the circuit where an infamous qualifying session took place in the World Touring Car Championship in 2013, when the whole field slowed in qualifying in order to stop the car behind them getting a tow, Oriola finds his pit garage well placed to find that all-important slipstream, especially as he doesn’t have a team-mate this weekend with Target just fielding the one car.

“I’m one of the last in the pit boxes, so they’re all going to go out so I can go out behind the whole field, so I think I can find one,” he mused.