Potential engine issue behind Jason Plato’s lack of pace

A potential engine issue caused Jason Plato to qualify down in tenth place, the two-time BTCC champion has said.

Plato struggled through most of the morning, unable to put in a top time through both practice sessions, before scoring tenth place at the end of qualifying. The reason for the lack of pace, though, is a potential issue in the engine, believes Plato.

“We’re just lacking in a straight line,” Plato told TouringCarTimes. “I think we’ve got a problem and we’re just chasing our tail trying to ask too much of the car in the corners when actually we’re losing it on the straight and we can see it on our data, we could see it at Rockingham to be honest. The guys are going to have a look through the engine tonight to see if they can find an issue with it.”

However, Plato was not too disappointed with tenth, saying there could have been more from the car had he not been caught out by a mistake from another car ahead of him on his fastest lap.

“Not terrible considering both myself and Aron got caught up with Rob Austin on our best lap,” he explained. “He made a mistake, got a bit of oversteer at Luffied, didn’t know we were there then cut across and we had to back out of the throttle, so we lost half a tenth to a tenth there. Where would that put us? Better than we are.”