Gordon Shedden: “It was damage limitation”

Gordon Shedden said he felt qualifying at Brands Hatch had been a case of ‘damage limitation’ after securing third on the grid for the BTCC season opener.

The defending champion was on the pace in both free practice sessions at the wheel of his Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic and then came close to a front-row start in a topsy-turvy qualifying session that was red-flagged twice and affected by rain.

The Scot will now hope to challenge for the first victory of the season when the opening race kicks off on Sunday morning, although he admitted that getting points on the board was ultimately the most important thing.

“It’s damage limitation when you have a session like that,” he said. “It would have been nice to be on pole position or on the front row of the grid, but there is nothing wrong with third.

“We’d worked through quite a bit in practice although I think there was more to come from the car in qualifying. Conditions were changing all the time though, and I’m sure there are plenty of other drivers on the grid who would say similar.

“Tomorrow will be interesting as I’m sure [polesitter] Jeff [Smith] will want to fight for a podium or victory, but we have to just focus on our own thing. Hopefully him and Tom [Ingram] will get a little bit friendly and we nip through but at the end of the day, we just want to start the year with a good result.

“We’re not going to win the title in race one tomorrow.”