Benjamin Leuchter hails SLR turnaround after securing first pole

Benjamin Leuchter has thanked his Sébastien Loeb Racing team for their progress since a sluggish start to the season, after the Volkswagen squad had its best qualifying of the year to-date, with Leuchter leading Rob Huff in a 1-2 for the team, with all four cars in the top ten.

Leuchter, the R&D driver for Volkswagen and who has the most experience at the circuit of the team’s four drivers, planted his Golf GTI TCR on pole position in a tricky wet-to-dry qualifying session, opting for slicks for his final run, and like many others, was still able to improve despite a 60km/h zone in the final sector for the crashed Cupra of Daniel Haglöf.

“In the end it was wet, which were my conditions,” said Leuchter to TouringCarTimes.

“Twice now I’ve been P1 on full wets, so I was quite confident for the last run. The team asked me what I wanted to do, and I gambled a little bit and went for four slicks, which was ultimately the right decision, and I’m very glad to be on pole for my home race.”

Leuchter admitted when he heard there was a Code 60 slow zone in the final sector, there was no chance of improving his time.

“I got the information that there was Code 60 when I was on the Döttinger Höhe, and this point I thought pole would not be possible. But when I got there, I did everything I had to do, slow to 120, to 60, and then I crossed the finish line and got the information I was on pole, it’s unbelievable.”

Leuchter said the effort SLR have made in turning around their performance over the last two races is testament, hailing them as the best team on the grid.

“The guys did a fantastic job, and I hope my experience here with this car has helped with the preparation”, he said.

“The team is great, it’s really brilliant to work with them – double pole, with pole in the second and third races, it’s unbelievable and shows the team is one of the best. We struggled at the start of the season, but a good team shows itself when it’s able to come back.”