Arena Fords just outside Q2 in their first weekend

The Arena Motorsport Ford Focuses of James Nash and Tom Chilton qualified in 14th and 15th in their first weekend in the WTCC at Monza, with Nash just 1.5 seconds down on pole sitter Tarquini.

The team battled with oil pressure issues throughout testing and free practice, and with the two drivers separated in qualifying were unable to slipstream each other to improve their top speeds, but still were just two spots outside of reaching Q2 in their first meeting.

“The team have done a fair job, it was never going to be easy for us,” said Nash to TouringCarTimes. “We showed a bit of spark in free practice 1 and 2 with issues, and qualifying wasn’t free of issues, but that’s what we expect from a new car and a new engine.”

“Every time we hit the track we have been getting quicker, that’s a positive we can take from it. We’ve got to take bitesize chunks to improve that car and every time we do do something it is an improvement. We won’t sort it out this weekend, we won’t sort it out next weekend but by the end of the year we’ll be getting on top of it.”

The organisers have made the decision that Arena Motorsport has received too much assistance from Ford for either of their drivers to be classified as independents, with initially just Tom Chilton having been listed as not eligible for the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy.

The two drivers were third and fourth placed of drivers new to the Championship however, with only Alex MacDowall and Gábor Wéber ahead of them.

“Realistically beating Alex MacDowall out of the blocks wasn’t going to happen,” said Nash. “He’s been in that car in Britain for two years, so it’s just a slightly different engine for him and it’s meant to be as close to the works cars as you can get; if he didn’t get anywhere near them in qualifying I’d think he’d have been extremely disappointed. So he’s doing well but we’ll catch him.”