Photo: Knockhill

Andy Priaulx pleased to take pole at “aggressive” Knockhill

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Andy Priaulx was very happy to take pole position on his return to Knockhill, praising the circuit’s “busy” layout and constantly keeping himself on the edge.

The West Surrey Racing driver took pole position ahead of his BMW team-mate Sam Tordoff, while Rob Collard in the third WSR car took fourth on the grid. Despite the team’s impressive display, Priaulx does not believe the team have the same step ahead of the field that they did at Croft earlier in the year.

“We just squeezed that one lap,” Priaulx said. “That’s all it takes to do it and I got it right at the end. I knew the target would keep moving throughout the session, so that was a good lap for me, very happy.

“I honestly don’t think we’re as strong as we are at Croft, but I think we’re strong, well I don’t think, I know. Why shouldn’t a RWD car be on pole? We’re driving with a really hard tyre but… blah blah blah, I’m not going to be a whinger!”

Priaulx now goes in to race one with the perfect chance to take victory in race one, although he knows starting from pole does not necessarily equal a race win, as he proved at the opening round of the year at Brands Hatch when he struggled on the softer Dunlop tyre.

“I want to try and win tomorrow,” he said. “So far I’ve got 49 wins and I’d like to make it another one, that’d be cool. I’ve been in this business way too long to know that just because you’re on pole that doesn’t mean you’re going to win.”

The three-time World Touring Car champion’s last visit to Knockhill resulted in victory back in 2002, and the circuit is one he holds dear, having tasted success in a number of categories before his move to the World Championship.

“I’ve always had good time here,” he reminisced. “In F3 I was on pole and in Spiders I was on pole, I didn’t get pole here in a Honda, but I won a race. I like it, it’s like a little hillclimb track, it’s really busy and it’s aggressive, you have to be very committed in the car, I like that, it helps me. I was right on the edge, there was never a wheel on the deck or a straight moment, the car was sliding a lot, it was very easy to nip a front and go off.”