Josh Brookes is confident that he can challenge for the win tomorrow after coming extraordinarily close to securing pole position this afternoon at Brands Hatch.
The Australian put in a quick lap of 1:25.332 in the last few seconds of the session but this wasn’t enough to knock Shane Byrne off the top of the timing sheets – losing out by just 0.001s.
Despite the gap between himself and Byrne being so close, Brookes was left feeling slightly disappointed with how the session had worked out.
He said: “It’s still second, it doesn’t matter how close – it’s still second. My first flyer was quite good and then when I came into the last two corners I ran wide and missed the apex and again the last turn. I knew I could improve on the lap that I did but the next two or three laps I made similar mistakes in other areas and I couldn’t piece the lap together properly.
Brookes currently has nine podiums to his name in 2015 and is desperate to get that first win of the season out of the way sooner rather than later.
Despite missing out on top spot this afternoon, Brookes knows that starting from the front-row gives him a good chance of claiming that illusive first win tomorrow.
Brookes said: “I am quite pleased to do the lap time, but disappointed to get second. It puts us in a good position for tomorrow’s race though and I look forward to that. I think our pace and consistency is quite good. I feel like we’ve got a good race package and to start from the front row of the grid should give us a good chance to fight with whoever’s going for the lead.”
Brookes will have one eye on setting the fastest lap-time possible in race one tomorrow to ensure that he is on the front-row of the grid for race two, meaning that he would qualify for the optional ‘King of Brands’ Challenge.
Race one is scheduled to begin at 13:30 tomorrow, with the second race of the day due to get underway at 16:30.