Menu expects tough fight with BMW

Alain Menu expects a hard fight on race day, after struggling with the car set-up in qualifying, the Chevrolet driver starts in the midst of four BMW drivers for the first race of the day at Valencia, who he believes will have the edge over the race distance.

The Swiss driver was second fastest in both of the free practice sessions, but neither Menu or team-mate Rob Huff were able to match the pace of Yvan Muller, who was quickest in every session on Saturday.

“It’s disappointing with Q1 to be P2, but I hit the target,” said Menu, who by setting the second fastest time in the first session will also start down in ninth for race two. “But in Q2…I couldn’t get the balance of the car (right) anyway, but I could have done P2.”

“On the second outing, the first two corners were really good but then I had massive oversteer into Turn 4, which cost me loads of time, and then I was gaining again and then in the last corner I just had complete understeer all the way through and then I lost two or three tenths down the straight. So Yvan’s lap time, no, but P2 was there.”

In FP1, Menu was six-tenths of a second down on Muller, with the gap increasing to nine-tenths as the track temperature increased to 37 celsius in the second session.

“We tried all day to fix the oversteer, but that gap has been there all day. Okay maybe he (Muller) drives better this weekend than Rob and I, that’s possible also, but we need to get this balance right, that’s the problem.”

“Grip level is poor because it’s very hot so the track is quite slippery, tomorrow will be a nightmare, 14 laps it’s going to be very hard. The Bee-Ems will be good.”