Ford took points in both races with James Nash finishing tenth in races one and two, with Tom Chilton in 11th in race two, with Ford the only front-wheel drive manufacturer not to suffer from punctures in that race.
James Nash finished in tenth place in race one, following Hungarian WTCC race winner Norbert Michelisz across the line in race one with Chilton in 16th, whilst both the Fords were able to benefit from the retirements and punctures in race two, moving up to 10th and 11th respectively and adding two points to their tally.
“It’s been quite a challenging weekend for me, and I didn’t feel that I maximised my own performance during qualifying,” said Nash. “However these two races have given us a strong idea of the direction we need to be going in. It’s great to have scored points in both races this weekend. To be consistent and walk away with points during both races is always a positive.”
The team will have limited time to work on the cars before the next round at Portimao, and then only ten days in the factory before the cars are shipped to South America for the start of the flyaway season, where they expect to be able to try out some further improvements, but driver Tom Chilton is happy with the progress they’re making.
“All the other circuits we’ve been (excluding Marrakech & Slovakiaring), we’ve been 1-2 seconds off pole in qualifying,” said Chilton to TouringCarTimes. “And 1-2 seconds in racing terms in my mind is a long time, but when I look at all the other manufacturers who have come into the Championship over the years they say they were four seconds off, so I see our team as 75% down the road further than they were.”
The team will also have their test car ready in June which will allow them to further develop the Ford Focus S2000 TC whilst the race cars are in transit across the Americas and Asia for the remaining half of the 2012 season.
