Kris Richard rues missing Nordschleife pole by 0.012 despite “on the limit” lap

Rikli Motorsport’s Kris Richard qualified in second position for the European Touring Car Cup’s debut at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in his Honda Civic TCR, just 12-thousandths of a second behind the SEAT León TCR of Petr Fulín, but says that was the most he could get out of the car.

The Swiss driver, who threw himself into championship contention after a strong weekend in Slovakia, will start behind Fulín for Race 1 on Saturday, and was happy with his qualifying performance, despite missing out on pole by a whisker.

“I think it was a very good qualifying for me, I feel very confident with the car,” said Richard. “It’s my first time at the Nordschleife and for me every lap is amazing. Also the team worked really hard, so thanks to the team also.

“It’s such a small gap between me and Petr, and if I’d just pushed a little bit more I’d have had pole positon, but that’s racing, but second place is also very good, my two runs were absolutely on the limit.”