Scott McLaughlin content with third for Volvo Polestar’s first Bathurst

The longest race for the new Volvo Polestar Racing S60 is ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat tomorrow, with McLaughlin putting the car third on the grid after today’s top ten shootout. The New Zealander is confident in the race pace of the car, as Volvo return for the first time to the mountain since they won the event back in 1998 with Rickard Rydell and Jim Richards.

Asked if he was disappointed in not having secured pole position at this year’s Bathurst 1000km, McLaughlin said:

“Yeah, I want pole at Bathurst as much as anyone else does, but I think I was a little more on the conservative side. I think as a race car, I think it’s one of the first tracks we’ve been to this year where we’ve had a race car instead of a qually car, so hopefully what we’ve learned in the last few practice sessions pays off tomorrow.”

With reliability a concern after a couple of mechanical glitches for the Volvo during the season in the race which will be the hardest on the cars as well as the drivers all year, McLaughlin added:

“The car’s been faultless all weekend. The boys have checked everything, I’ve been driving as hard as I could, we’ve not been trying to look after anything, so at the end of the day we’re stepping into the unknown tomorrow. We finished the 500km of Sandown pretty good, so I’m pretty confident it’ll be alright.”