James Thompson: “I’m still dreaming” after fourth place in qualifying

Münnich Motorsport driver James Thompson scored the best qualifying result for the team since 2014 with fourth on the grid for tomorrow’s main race at Moscow Raceway, shining in the wet to finish ahead of all the factory Hondas, Citroëns and Ladas, and wind up as the top independent driver.

The 42-year-old is making his third appearance of the season with the ALL-INKL backed Münnich Motorsport team, driving the team’s Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 and has also been reunited with long-time engineer Marco Calovolo. The two-time British Touring Car champion will line up fourth on the grid behind the three Ladas, the team which unceremoniously dropped him mid-weekend in Hungary last year.

“To be honest if you said to me I’d be in fourth place for the main race at the beginning of the day I would have thought I was still sleeping, still dreaming,” said Thompson.

“But I’m really, really pleased. Obviously the team wanted me here for my experience but it’s been really nice this weekend because we’ve been working really hard together as a team and I’ve got my old engineer Marco here going through things and we’ve gone well in these conditions. I’m totally over the moon. It’s a little unexpected but you take every gift you get because it was tricky out there. Maybe all those years driving in the rain in England has paid off.”