Stefano Comini expects to be playing defensive game on Sunday

Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini was happy to have qualified in fourth position for Race 1 on Sunday in Thailand, but the Swiss expects he’ll have to defend hard with 30kg of success ballast, rather than attack during the two races.

Comini qualified just behind team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay, who is running 20kg lighter in the same Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, but the reigning champion’s one-point lead over Craft-Bamboo’s Pepe Oriola has turned into a two-point deficit due to qualifying points.

“I’m happy,” said Comini to TouringCarTimes. “I didn’t expect something like this. I didn’t put new tyres on in free practice, only qualifying…I had a great slipstream and I hope to be at the front tomorrow to try and score good points and be ahead of Pepe.”

The 26-year-old doesn’t believe the weight has affected his one-lap pace as much as it’ll affect the car’s performance over a race distance in the heat and humidity.

“It will be difficult, as 30kg here it’s not so much about the lap time but consistency,” he said.

“With 30kg you can feel the pace going down very fast, so I will try to get as far in front as possible at the start and after that be a wall, though it’s very difficult to have great starts with this car. I’m a good starter, but sometimes it’s not been going well, so I just hope to have two good starts tomorrow.”