Attila Tassi thanks the team for a brilliant job after qualifying on row two

M1RA’s Attila Tassi qualified in fourth position for the first race at the Salzburgring in a car which the team only took delivery of this morning following his testing crash yesterday, even though the 17-year-old will have to start from the back of the grid due to an engine change penalty.

Tassi was fourth fastest and the best-placed Honda in qualifying with the brand new Honda Civic TCR which was delivered by JAS Motorsport to the team overnight.

“This car we’ve just had this morning from 4am and the guys have done a brilliant job to fit the car together to participate in FP1, FP2 and qualifying,” said Tassi to TouringCarTimes.

“In qualifying we were fourth, which was a really good result, as we were only one-tenth behind first.”

Although setting the fourth fastest time, Tassi will start from the back of the grid for Race 1 after an effective engine change by changing car, while he’ll line up seventh on the grid for Race 2 with the reversed top ten grid.

“We are focussing on the second race, as the first we’ll try to maybe make one or two points, but the second race will be more important. We were planning on aiming for P10, but the field was so tight so we chose to go for the maximum, and it’s good for us to see that even though this car is a new car, and with just two FPs which we used as a shakedown, it’s still competitive.”