Chevrolet satisfied with qualifying

Today’s qualifying was the first real test for the new Chevrolet Cruze. For the first time the team could see where they really were. With two cars in the top ten, and one not making it because of problems on the track, the team is quite pleased with the out come.

Huff’s qualifying was spoiled by an incident with Hernandez: the Spainard blocked him, and the Brit had to hit a kerb, which spoiled the setup of his Cruze, as he explains:“It is a pity to be out of the top ten in Q1, because I really think we had the potential to have the three cars in Q2. I managed to do quite a good time on used tires initially, and on my second attempt, with new tires, I was blocked by the BMW of Hernández. I had to go on a kerb to pass him and the performance was not in the car after that.”

Alain Menu and Nicola Larini clocked exactly the same lap time, but the Swiss still feels there is quite a margin between the performance he showed and the potential of the car: “Having two cars in the top ten in the Cruze’s first outing is a good result. I still find it hard to extract the best out of the Cruze, we need to know the car better, but I am pleased with today’s result. We could have done even better in Q2 but it was hard to find the good slipstream. Eventually, I found some behind one of the BMWs, but the SEATs, with five cars in the track, obviously managed to make the best use of slipstreaming today”.

Larini also finds the car is still young, but is confident that the Cruze has the potential to be a race winning car: “It’s a good result for the team. It proves the Cruze is competitive and we are on track with the changes we have made. I still feel the car lacks a little bit of stability in the fast corners, but we will continue to work on that ahead of tomorrow’s races.”