Quotes from the eighth qualifying session of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season.
Dan Lloyd: “I’m really disappointed with qualifying, I thought we had a good chance of having a good result today. In general, the car was a little bit loose and I made a couple of mistakes as well. There was definitely more performance to get out of the Cupra but when you combine the mistakes with how tight the field spread, you’re always going to drop down the order. Improving by three tenths would have put me well inside the top 10.
Overall, just a bad qualifying session to not nail the lap. We will 100% be better tomorrow but disappointed with today as I think we had a lot more in it and tomorrow is now much harder.
Michael Crees: “Overall I’m really happy with how the car handled today and my crew did a great job. When we put our best three sectors together, we would have been in the top 12. I was unintentionally blocked on my fastest lap which cost me some time on my quickest lap.
“Tomorrow is a new day and I’m buzzing to get going, I think we have the race pace to really move through the field.”
Dan will line up in 17th with Michael in 19th for the opening race.
Dexter Patterson: “Not the day I was after when just two weeks ago at Knockhill we had a really strong weekend and finish to the weekend. The car characteristics changed throughout the lap and that kills a driver’s confidence. During the start of the lap in sector one the car felt mega but as the lap progressed it became more and more unstable.
“It is what it is and there is no point on dwelling on it. We will have a good look through the data tonight and I know tomorrow we will come out fighting with a stronger package.”
Daryl DeLeon: “Today was okay. It was nice to visit a track I know well and where I’ve driven the Cupra before. In FP1 we were 18th which was a step in the right direction. FP2 had very tricky conditions after rain fell just before the start of the session. I felt like the car was good in those conditions however we were really unlucky to have a wheel issue which halted our session and put us on the back foot going into qualifying.
“It was really hard to know where we were compared to the rest of the grid with such limited running and I think the whole team finished the day feeling disappointed. But, it’s important to keep our head up and keep pushing to improve the car and have a good race day tomorrow.”
Dexter and Daryl will line up in 21st and 24th respectively.
Jack Butel: “Tricky day in the car today as I think all of the drivers experienced. In both practice sessions, the car actually felt okay, we just needed to build some consistency throughout the lap so we could progress up the field but sadly for us, that didn’t come in qualifying.
“I’ll be working with the boys and girls tonight to pour through the data to seek some solutions so we can really attack tomorrow and get in the mix for some points.
“A big thanks to the team on my car, they did a great job.”
Jack pushed hard and will start tomorrow in 22nd for the opening race of the day.