Gilles Magnus: “Slipstream the key to getting pole”

Gilles Magnus says that the slipstream he found in the second segment of qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps was the key to securing his first ever TCR Europe series pole position.

The Comtoyou Racing driver beat fellow Audi driver Santiago Urrutia by just six-hundredths of a second to claim top spot in a stop-start session.

While Urrutia was hampered by a lack of tow on his final flying lap – owing to a mistake from Team WRT team-mate Ash Sutton – Magnus believes his own slipstream was what proved enough at the flag.

“It was a tough session and to be on the limit is also really hard, as we saw with Josh and Julien [Briché] at Raidillon,” Magnus told TouringCarTimes.

“You need to in the slipstream to be on pole. We managed all that well today, so I’m really delighted.”

“The start will be really important, Urrutia is a fast driver but I feel confident we have the pace to stay in front. It won’t be easy for sure though.

Qualifying was twice disrupted following crashes for Josh Files and Teddy Clairet at Raidillon, leaving most drivers wary of grip levels at the high-speed corner.

Magnus admitted to putting the memories of a previous crash at the same position to the back of his mind during his flying laps as he went in search of pole.

Magnus added: “In 2017 I went off really hard at Raidillon, broke my upper leg and was unconscious for a few minutes so that is still in my mind. And yesterday with the red flags, we didn’t have a chance to try new tyres so I didn’t know the [performance] gap between the new and used tyres.”

“But there was no choice, I had to forget that and push through that corner from the first lap, and it was really on the limit.”