PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor has claimed his best qualifying performance of the year, missing out on pole by less than a tenth of a second in his Audi RS 3 LMS, and is looking forward to racing for a first victory given he’s not in realistic contention for the championship.

Taylor was quick in practice, but as with many drivers, lost a number of lap times with the officials closely monitoring the track limits in the last two corners. Taylor just narrowly missed out on pole to Eric Gené, but with Gené focussed on the drivers’ title, lasth year’s TCR Italy champion hopes that can play to his advantage.

“I’m just half a tenth behind pole, so I’m really happy,” said Taylor. “With the exception of Baldan, it’s all the junior drivers around the front. I know Eric will be thinking about the championship as he’s right there, while at this point I have nothing to lose. I’m not afraid to be a little more aggressive but of course staying within the limits, so I’m pretty optimistic for today.

“I think this is the most competitive qualifying session we’ve had this year. When I my lap got deleted in Q1, I know I’d set a decent time anyways, but when I asked where I was my engineer was just silent as I was right on the brink of elimination again - it was just two-tenths between P1 and P11, so I knew I had to focus and not have a track limits issue in Q2, it was very tough.”