Tyres key to victory chances in Race 1 says Teddy Clairet

Race 1 pole sitter Teddy Clairet says that tyre management in the opening TCR Europe series race of the weekend at Paul Ricard will be crucial after recording his maiden pole position.

The Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308TCR driver topped the times in the morning qualifying session by a little more than a tenth of a second, having previously been fastest in practice.

It was a welcome return to form for the Frenchman following a difficult opening weekend of the season in Slovakia, where his best finish was 14th in the second race.

“Qualifying was difficult because, as you could see, it was tight between everyone in Q2,” Clairet said after qualifying.

“It’s my first pole position in TCR so I’m really happy about that because we’ve improved a lot since the first race in Slovakia”

One of the areas Clairet says his team has been trying to understand better has been in the new-for-2021 Hankook tyres, and the pole sitter is keen to stress that in race trim, tyre preservation will be key to his victory chances.

“I’m really happy to come back here and to be on pole. I think we made the correct adjustments to the car, we know this track but we didn’t know that much about the tyres,” Clairet added.

“It was a bad weekend for us three weeks ago and so we tried to learn from our mistakes in Slovakia. It’s going to be difficult looking after the tyres here, but it’s going to be the same for everyone. We will be pushing and then we will see.”