Tom Coronel completed a double-points score with a strong top-10 finish for the Honda Civic Type R TCR in the third and final WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup race of the weekend at the Slovakia Ring on Sunday.
The Boutsen Ginion Racing driver avoided an opening-lap incident that eliminated 10 cars to climb from 17th place on the grid into the top 10.
His eighth-place finish, coupled with his seventh spot on Saturday afternoon and his season’s-best sixth place in opening qualifying, made it his most successful weekend of 2018.
After finishing a fine fifth in Saturday’s second race, Tom’s team-mate Benjamin Lessennes made an excellent start from eighth on Sunday and had gained two positions by the exit of Turn One.
Unfortunately for the Belgian, he was hit hard from behind at Turn Three and spun into several other cars – including the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda of Esteban Guerrieri.
While Benjamin and Esteban – who had qualified an excellent third – were eliminated on the spot, the second Münnich car of Yann Ehrlacher did make it through the melee.
Unlike Tom, Yann was forced to go to the outside of the incident, dropping to the back of the field and ingesting a lot of debris and grass into the cooling intake on his Civic Type R.
The Frenchman launched an almighty fightback, setting impressive laptimes and climbing from 17th to 12th by half-distance, despite his engine temperature rising due to the build-up of debris
This rising temperature, coupled with three hard hits in as many corners by another car, forced Yann into the pits to have the debris removed. He re-joined and finished 15th.
Yann lies fourth in the Drivers’ Championship as the WTCR enters its summer break. Esteban is eighth while Münnich are third in the Teams’ points table.
Boutsen Ginion Racing are ninth while drivers Benjamin and Tom holds 14th and 19th positions.
The results from Race Three remain provisional pending the result of appeals lodged by ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport and Boutsen Ginion Racing against exclusion from Saturday qualifying due to what were deemed to be incorrect boost pressures on all three cars.