Alain Menu plays down chances of race two repeat

Alain Menu has played down his chances of challenging for victory in the second race at Rockingham, despite a strong showing in the first race of the day, stating that he and Team BMR are still learning about the VW CC.

The two-time BTCC champion made the most of his soft tyres around the Corby circuit to take fourth, his best result of the season so far.

“I’m very happy, but we are still learning about the car,” Menu told TouringCarTimes. “We changed the set-up from yesterday thinking that it will go towards helping the front tyres, mainly, which seems to have worked.”

Menu was one of only four drivers to run with the soft tyre in the opening race of the day, preserving them in the opening laps and during the safety car period, which came out as a result of Lea Wood and Warren Scott colliding at Deene, and reeled in a number of drivers in the closing laps.

“I was on the soft option which on paper should degrade faster but they were still good at the end,” he continued. “I’ve just been told that Marc Hynes was also on the soft and that he struggled at the end, so I think there’s a way you have to preserve those tyres and be careful in the early laps.”

When asked of his chances for the rest of the day, Menu seemed to play them down, stating concern over which way to go with the car’s set-up.

“I will be on normal tyres so we’ll see, I don’t know if we should change the set-up or not. I’d like to get on the podium, yes, it’ll be nice.”