The 2013 Knockhill pole sitter believes that this year’s qualifying session around the Fife circuit will be the “craziest of all time”.

Rob Austin set a new touring car qualifying record of 52.471 in his Audi A4 during last year’s session, but this year he feels that the size of the grid will mean searching for a clear lap will be an incredibly tough task.

“The intensity and level of competition has moved on since last August which makes it tough enough to break into the top ten as it is and then there is the insane prospect of what lies in store in qualifying on Saturday afternoon,” said the Audi driver.

“This is going to be the craziest qualifying session of all time. Half a second was the difference between pole and 15th on the grid last year. I predict it will be even less this time around while I also expect another two tenths of a second to be knocked off that pole time at least.

“Sure we had a fairly problem-free qualifying session for the opening round at Brands Hatch Indy at the start of the season but Knockhill is very different – there are far more blind brows and it is much easier to trip up over a slower car or for drivers not on a hot one to not spot people coming up fast in their mirrors.

“With the title race coming to a bit of a critical point as well I’d imagine there will be some very angry drivers on Saturday evening. I hope I’m not one of them and that our strategy will work out like in 2013.”