Thirty minute practice sessions for both TD and Thommo were marred by red flags as the mountain took its toll on several cars.
Thommo jumped behind the wheel for the first of the sessions, and got some good lap times in before a 15 minute stop when the red flagged was waved for an incident on top of the mountain. Back out with 1 minute remaining, the session was extended by five minutes but it wasn't enough time to get tyres back up to temp, finishing the session with 7 laps under his belt in a great 11th position.
TD then jumped in the drivers seat. Sitting comfortably in the top 20 the reg flag was bought out twice for seperate incidents. Solid times were set, finishing the session with 9 laps in 16th position.
'The car was definately better then yesterday'.
Thirty Two cars took to the grid for qualifying. Light drops of rain passed before TD took to the track and green tyres were thrown on #55 as TD got down to business, jumping back up into the top 20, completing Qualifying A in 17th position with a 2.08.2957.
'We got held up by traffic at first but once that cleared we set some good times, finishing in the top 20 to get us into Qualifying B'.
Green tyres went on the green machine as TD continually improved his times in the second qualifying session. A red flag in the last few minutes bought the session to an end with #55 in 19th position for the big race.
'We were trying for better balance as we struggled with understeer in all the sessions. We needed that extra tenth that I had in the first qualifying session to get us in the top 15 where we were aiming to be, but we are happy with 19th. We have a good group of guys on the grid around us. The car is good on fuel consumption, we need tweak a few things to make it the consistent race car we want.'
The final practice session begins tomorrow at 10am.
Last Modified on 11/10/2009 18:21