Quotes from the ninth qualifying session of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season.
Chris Smiley: “The day started off badly, to be honest, and we were a session behind after finding out we had a faulty differential in the car in FP1 so we didn’t really get any relevant running. The lap time we did was actually quite good considering we didn’t have the diff working properly. FP2 was our FP1 basically so we were really on the back foot and we made changes to the car for qualifying that normally we would have made after FP1.
“In qualifying itself our first lap was good enough to put us 4th in the session and would have put us comfortably through but we were pinged for track limits. Honestly, I can’t remember running any wider on that lap then another before or after. I haven’t looked back at it yet and we will get the footage later so we can check.
“I think we are potentially going to be starting in 13th with the issues with the Vauxhalls in front of us so tomorrow I think we can benefit from getting ourselves in the reverse grid for race 3 and hopefully a bit of weather and carnage in front will work in our favour.”
Scott Sumpton: “Happy to be starting inside the points tomorrow in 15th on what was a good day for me. The car was working well under me and the team did a great job in each of the sessions.
“Tomorrow is looking to be mixed bag in terms of the weather and I think that will help us maintain our position and even move forward as we look to finish the season strongly.”
Note: Chris Smiley’s quote was taken before the disqualification of Cars #40, #45 & #88