Neal: “I am suprised to be on pole!”

Vauxhall man Matt Neal grabbed pole position with a small margin ahead of his team mate and reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi. But the Brit was surprised to be on pole ahead of his team mate and the BMW armada.
“He always pulls a rabbit out of the hat, and in all the pre-season testing he’s had me by a tenth or two, so I was expecting it to be him on pole,” Neal said to Autosport.

In the final moments of the qualifying Neal was sitting in the pit lane, expecting his time to be beat by the BMW’s.

“We just decided to sit in the pits for the final few minutes and save the tyres for the races. I was waiting to go out on track and do another lap, because I was convinced they [the BMWs] were going to do us. They didn’t, though,” said Neal.

But Neal expects the start of the race to be especially hard. The BMW are going to use their advantage of rear wheel drive to get ahead. Neal expects it to be very hard if they manage to get past.

“Colin can get that thing off the line very quickly, and so can Rob. It ain’t over yet by a long shot, and if they can get us at the start, then it will be very difficult for us to get them back,” said Neal.