Dufek happy with Hitech TGR potential in Bahrain after top 12 result in Qualifying

Joshua Dufek is gearing up to start Saturday’s Sprint Race from reverse grid pole after ending up P12 in Qualifying on Friday.

The Austrian driver was able to string together a good lap in the final minutes of the session to earn his grid slot, with teammate Martinius Stenshorne one place ahead of him in the order.

After a positive day for Hitech TGR, he explained how the session had been one of compromise, but that ended up going well for the British outfit.

“I’m happy to be in the top 12, getting that reverse grid pole is a nice thing,” he said. “I know we can do a good job from there tomorrow. Ideally though, we would have finished further forward. I know we had a bit more potential in there.

“The warm-ups for everybody were a little bit messy and you’re trying to not damage your tyres in the heat, while working on your positioning at the same time. It was definitely tough out there, but we made it inside the top 12 which I think is the main thing around here. It will hopefully give us some good points this weekend.”

Going further into what had happened in Qualifying, Dufek explained that the team’s run plan going into the session was to place their cars towards the front of the queue to avoid traffic problems.

It was a move that he says worked well in the first half of the 30-minute outing, but ahead of the final runs had to be adapted after he was delayed in rejoining the track for his final attempt.

“I think our plan was to be further towards the front of the field, so we didn’t have to deal with traffic as much, and that worked out pretty well in the first run.

“But then in between the first and second run, I had a small issue which delayed my start on the second set and from then on, I couldn’t make back the positions I lost. It messed us up and it didn’t go to plan, but it was difficult for everyone out there. Considering the circumstances, we can be happy with where we finished.”

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Looking ahead to the remainder of the weekend, Dufek says that Hitech has good potential. Going from the front of the grid in the Sprint, he says the team could be in a position to control things from the lead positions, as they chase their first victory of the 2025 campaign.

“Martinius did a good job as well, finishing one position ahead of me, and we’ll be starting 1-2 which, for the team might be a nerve-wracking thing, but I think it’s a good thing.

“We can work as a team and use that to our advantage to hopefully create a lead early on, and then manage tyre degradation as the race progresses.

“We’ll have a discussion with the team to see how we’ll manage that, but we’ll aim for a good start. As far as Sunday goes, we’re in the middle and in the mix, I just have to do what I can do to try and get ahead and manage my tyres whilst still being in traffic.”

While Practice was a fairly quiet session, teams have plenty of data to fall back on after in-season testing around the Bahrain International Circuit last month.

Dufek says that it will be interesting to see how things pan out in the races after some promising signs in testing, albeit with the unknown of what their rivals were up to across the three-day event.

“I think it was interesting because everyone did different things and ran at different times, but we were able to do a lot of long running, learn a lot and we have a good baseline to go off.

“We don’t know what the others are doing, everyone was running at different times so we’re going into it a little bit blind. I feel confident though, I know we can do a good job tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it.”