Tyre issues cost Stefano Comini top five shot

Stefano Comini had a tough qualifying session today, only managing to finish ninth and lapping two tenths slower than Q2 in the second segment. The championship leader lamented tyre issues, as the new rubber he fitted proved to cause him problems.

“I could have managed a much better lap time in Q1 already,” said the Leopard Racing driver to TouringCarTimes. “I had someone spinning in front of me in the third sector and I lost a lot of time to avoid him, but thankfully I still managed to get to Q2.”

In the second segment the new rubber didn’t work as expected: “I fitted new tyres, but somehow I lost grip and I was slower. I am still at a loss to explain how this happened, but that was my issue and I could have done much better than this.”

Comini eventually decided to go back to the pits to fit older tyres, but ran out of time: “I made the decision to switch to the older tyre, but unfortunately for as little as 0.3s I took the flag in my outlap and I couldn’t try to do that run. It was a shame, because that extra lap was really quick and I could have improved my starting position. I believe I could have gone for a top five result and taken some points for the championship.”

The Swiss wants to bag as many points as possible, and did not rule out an aggressive approach as early as Race 1: “We have two races, so you always want to be careful, but I may also go for it from the start and try to surprise someone. I know it’s a difficult corner because the track is so narrow at Turn 1. We will see.”

Comini remains on 120 points and leads the championship from Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola by a single point, with James Nash a further four adrift.