Top Honda Aku Pellinen at a loss to explain pace over his team-mates

Aku Pellinen qualified his WestCoast Racing Honda Civic in third position for this afternoon’s first race, while team-mates Kevin Gleason and Gianni Morbidelli will start 13th and 15th at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, with the Finn unable to explain the performance difference between them, but hopes to jump ahead of SEAT at the start.

“I don’t know (why they’re behind),” said Pellinen to TouringCarTimes. “I made a good lap, I think it was the maximum I could do with this car. I think the other’s had some kind of problems as they should have been in Q2.”

The 22-year-old says it will be difficult to fight the SEATs and Volkswagens at Spa, with the fast circuit favouring the Volkswagen Group cars’ engines.

“I will try my best, I’m a bit worried about the straight-line speed of SEAT, they are a bit faster on the straights and can overtake more easily than I, so I just need to be clever in the race,” he added. “Our car is good in the fast corners, which is why my lap was so good today as the balance is perfect.

“I’ve had good starts this year, so we’ll try to do a good start and see what happens.”