James Thompson rues loss of Friday test for track familiarisation

Münnich Motorsport’s James Thompson qualified in 11th, just outside of the critical top ten which would have scored a reversed grid pole at Twin Ring Motegi, and the two-time BTCC drivers’ champion believes the lack Friday testing for the flyaway rounds is a key hindrance.

Thompson, filling in for René Münnich for the sixth time this season, comfortably put the Chevrolet Cruze into the second part of qualifying on his second flying run in Q1, but with just one set of new tyres available for Q2, he was unable to make the top ten for the race.

“I think missing that Friday session (hurt us), as we didn’t run any new tyres at all in the first two practice (sessions),” said Thompson to TouringCarTimes.

“The set-up of the car wasn’t too bad, but we just needed more laps really to get a feel for the car, and then a couple of things we changed for the next session might have just got us into the top ten.

“Obviously we’re disappointed. I’ve never done a race weekend here, and if we had it’d be a huge gain in experience. I think we did a good run in Q1, and in Q2 we were looking for three or four tenths more.”

From the last round in Argentina and through the remaining rounds of the season, the WTCC has dropped the 30-minute test session on Friday and replaced it with a six-lap shakedown run which takes place behind the safety car, which is done to ensure all the cars are in working order post-freight.

“We’re at the wrong time of the year where we’re now coming to tracks I don’t know, so that’s the reality, so missing that one session (FP0) is really hurting us,” explained Thompson.

“That’s the one where you learn the track and get some data and have a look at it for the next day, whereas in the day like today you only have an hour and a half between sessions. In the shakedown we were barely going fast enough to cool the engine…at least we’ve sat in the car and got a view of where you’re going, but can you glean anything from it? No, you can bed-in the brakes and that’s about it.”

The Briton is hoping, like Lada, that predicted adverse weather conditions might shake things up on race day.

“I think it could be an interesting race. It’ll be hard on brakes, but it depends what the weather does really, that’s what will create the race. It’ll be nice if it rained half-way through and spiced it up a bit.”