Tom Coronel happy with points collected in Shanghai

ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel collected 12 points in Shanghai, despite having lost his last run in qualifying due to a weight and ride height check. The Dutchman had been running in tenth for most of the session, but Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani demoted him to eleventh in a last gasp attempt, leaving Coronel out of the reverse grid and on the sixth row for both races.

Coronel emerged as the highest-placed Chevrolet RML Cruze in both races, claiming eighth in the first heat and sixth in Race 2. The highlight was the start of the first race, says Coronel:”From eleventh place on the grid, I had a fantastic start into the first race”, commented the Dutchman. “I accelerated from zero to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, which was my fastest start ever with the Chevrolet. Then, I was involved in a nice battle with Valente after I already had overtaken Bennani at the start. Eventually, I finished eighth, even ahead of Valente and as the best-placed Chevrolet driver.”

The second race was not as dramatic, as an early battle with Ma Qing Hua, which ended up with the Citroën driver taking a place away from the Chevrolet, was the main highlight of the Dutchman’s race:”In the second race, I had another good start and I even was in front of Chinese driver Ma in one of the fast Citroëns. In the early stages of the race, I had some battles, but later on, it was a rather solitary race. I finished seventh, once again the best result with the Cruze. After the race, Loeb was given a time penalty for colliding with Muller. That allowed me to move up one more position and I ended up sixth. Good points for the championship, in which Citroën has won the manufacturers title. Congratulations to them!”

Coronel believes that the extra 20 kilos gained by Chevrolet due to their good results in Beijing were the reason why the RML-built cars struggled in Shanghai:”The fact that I was the fastest Chevrolet driver in both races clearly reflects that my car runs well, but that we are affected by the extra weight. The next round will take place at the Suzuka circuit in a fortnight, where I assume we will be a little bit lighter and the Hondas a little bit heavier. Therefore, I expect some more competition.”

The Suzuka event is particularly important for Coronel, as the Dutchman raced for years in Japan:”The races will be in Japan, my second home country and the country where I raced for many years. That always gives me some extra energy. I have already won there in WTCC and I really hope that we will be able to repeat that once again. Who knows, maybe that little bit of energy that I just mentioned will help us to pull that off!”

Coronel is now seventh in the championship. The ROAL Motorsport driver was tied on points with Norbert Michelisz, but the Hungarian jumped up to fifth in the standings, 12 points ahead of Coronel. Gabriele Tarquini is sixth, just four points ahead of the Dutchman.