Jaap van Lagen delighted with debut pole position at home

Jaap van Lagen has said he’s delighted with pole position for his home race at Zandvoort, which is a one-off outing with Team WRT in the TCR Europe Touring Car Series as Jean-Karl Vernay is unable to take part due his World Touring Car Cup commitment, but rues a mistake on his first flying lap which cost him time.

Van Lagen’s first run was 0.020 seconds slower than PCR Sport Cupra driver Mikel Ascona, and the Dutchman had to venture out again for one final stab at pole, which allowed him to put the Audi RS 3 LMS on pole by almost half a second.

“I wasn’t worried,” sad Van Lagen to TouringCarTimes. “We knew that we had time to do two laps in Q2, and if I was quick enough on the first lap I would have just kept the set of tyres,; but I made a mistake on my first lap and lost three-tenths.

“I only missed it by two-hundredths of a second, and so we put on a new set of tyres and my second lap was a fantastic lap.”

Van Lagen hopes to convert pole position to victory in Race 1 tomorrow, despite the fast Spaniard Ascona alongside, and the fast-starting Attila Tassi third on the grid in the Honda Civic TCR.

“I did some long runs in practice and the car feels very consistent, and I have a new set of tyres I can use for the race so I feel quite comfortable,” he said. “We have a good balance in the car so we’ll be strong. I’ve not been following TCR as I’ve been racing in the Porsche Supercup, but I’ve heard the Honda is the strongest car at the moment, and if it’s true, they may have better pace, but it’s not easy to pass here.”