Pepe Oriola says qualifying tenth couldn’t be deliberate with the current field

Campos Racing Cupra TCR driver Pepe Oriola will start from pole position for the first reversed grid race of the World Touring Car Cup this afternoon, after the Spaniard set the tenth fastest time in the morning’s qualifying session, but says aiming for tenth wasn’t planned.

The 23-year-old, who became the youngest winner of an FIA World Championship race five years ago at the same circuit, also from the reversed grid, was tenth fastest in qualifying, fighting back to drop WRT Audi driver Gordon Shedden after a late improvement.

“I’m happy because it was so tight,” said Oriola to TouringCarTimes. ”One-tenth of a second and you could be sixth or 12th, so aiming for tenth wasn’t deliberate as it’s nothing you can predict.

“If I get a good start and don’t get overtaken I could probably win, as you don’t have to push here as it’s impossible to overtake. I think we’re in a good position to score our first points, and then in Race 3 we’ll see how it goes.”

Oriola starts on the front row ahead of former TCR rival Jean-Karl Vernay in the WRT Audi, but it’s the typically fast-starting Honda that Oriola’s more concerned about, with James Thomson starting third on the grid behind them in the Münnich Motorsport-run car.

“I think it’s easy for Jean-Karl and I to score points and we need to make sure we stop Thompson getting past at the start, maybe I go one side and he the other, I’ll maybe go talk to him,” he said.