James Nash: “Comini seems to pick the right car every year”

James Nash qualified down in a lowly 16th for both of this weekend’s races at Spa-Francorchamps. The Craft-Bamboo SEAT driver reflected on SEAT’s struggles at the Belgian circuit after qualifying, and pointing out that pole-sitter Stefano Comini appears to have the perfect car for this year’s schedule with the Audi RS 3.

Nash missed out on Q2 for the second time this year, after failing to get a competitive lap in the first part of qualifying after catching GE-Force Alfa driver Davit Kajaia at the wrong moment on his best lap.

“Our first two sectors were OK, but I just met Davit Kajaia at the wrong time at Blanchimont,” said Nash to TouringCarTimes. “He let one car through, and by the time I got to him at the corner at Blanchimont he was at the apex, so I had to lift and that destroyed our lap.”

The best-placed SEAT after qualifying was Nash’s team-mate Pepe Oriola, who will line up ninth for Race 1, which flips to second for the reversed grid Race 2, and was the only SEAT in the top ten. With Stefano Comini claiming pole in the Audi RS 3 LMS in a car which has shown its edge at high-speed circuits, Nash applauded Comini’s ‘luck’ in having the right car.

“The fastest SEAT to be in ninth is pretty ridiculous,” added Nash. “Comini does a good job of getting the right car every year. There were loads of short circuits last year, and he was in the Golf that’s nimble – and now there’s lots of fast circuits this year, Spa, Monza, Salzburg…it’s all falling into his hands.”