WTCR Victory for Honda Civic Type R TCR at Nürburgring

“This has probably been the most enjoyable day of racing of my life; a great win in Race Two and a really fantastic race later on. The peak of the weekend was yesterday in qualifying when I managed eighth on my last lap with a leaking damper at the rear. That put me third on the reversed-grid and from there I was able to find a way to the front, build a gap where the Honda was at its fastest in the twisty sections, and hang on for my first win of the year. I’m hugely disappointed with what I believe was an unfair penalty in Race Three because as a team, we deserved the result, but the victory is what I will remember from this weekend.”

“I was very pleased to qualify fifth, because that means I’ve been in the top-five in every second qualifying this year. That meant I was sixth for Race Two on the reversed grid, and it’s where I finished because with the slipstream it was impossible not to lose two places on the long straight on the last lap. I should have been fourth in the last race, but the fuel pressure dropped suddenly as I started the last lap and I had to stop.”

“I’ve finished in the points in all three races this weekend, which is the first time that happened all year. We worked hard to maximise the car for the corners and it’s paid off, although we didn’t have the necessary straightline speed to challenge the other cars down the long straight at the end of the lap. Some of the driving out there was pretty tough and there was a lot of contact, especially from Gordon Shedden, but the car is handling well and this is all good for my home race at Zandvoort next week.”

“We’ve made good progress today and 17th and 19th in the races is clearly much better than where we qualified. My target was to be in the top 10 here, but I think the mixed weather conditions in free practice set us back and denied us the track time we needed to make sure we had the right settings on the car for the rest of the weekend. It’s been hard to overtake on the straights here, although the car felt strong in the corners. I hope we have another opportunity to show what we can do at this level later in the year.”

“Today was an improvement on qualifying and Kris has put together two very strong drives to finish 17th and 19th, which are both much higher than where he started. We had some issues; the main one being the lack of dry running in practice, which put us on the back foot, especially as Kris has never driven the new Honda here before. As a team we’ve worked together to move up the order today and we can continue to climb if we get an opportunity for further wildcard entries.”

“It’s fantastic to see the Honda Civic Type R TCR on the top step of the podium, so I must offer huge congratulations to ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport and to Esteban. We’ve had a suspension issue that was magnified here by the demands of the circuit, but this has been rectified overnight and you can see the result today with Benjamin Lessennes scoring a great result in Race Three and Tom Coronel also scoring points in every race.”