Esteban Guerrieri: “It’s very frustrating”

GOAT Racing driver Esteban Guerrieri didn’t hide his frustration of qualifying in third place for the FIA TCR World Tour round at Vila Real after doing a “pole position lap”.

“In reality, it was a pole-position lap,” Guerrieri told TouringCarTimes.

“I’m not on the pole position because of other circumstances but, as a driver, to extract the technique and elevate the demand level, get close to the barriers and everything and finish with a lap like this, it’s a nice feeling as a driver.

“But then, when you see the lap times and I know it was a lap worth of a pole position and I see that I’m P3, it’s very frustrating.”

Pole man Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co) said that the extra weight had helped them to balance the car at Vila Real, but Guerrieri doesn’t buy it.

“30 kg is a lot and if it balances your car, I can do that without the 30 kilos. The engineers can help you and that, but 30 kilos increases the weight and the car performance notices that,” said the Argentinian driver.

Looking ahead to the races, the Honda driver was sceptical of his chances to score a victory starting from third on the grid.

“The key is doing a good start as we can’t overtake,” Guerrieri said. “It’s also because of that that it is frustrating not being in pole position and being third.

“Second would have been ok, because one can try to gain the position, but from P3 it’s going to be difficult unless somebody at the front makes a mistake.”