Tom Chilton:”It was hard work out there!”

Tom Chilton scored his second podium of the year at Suzuka after an intense fight with Hugo Valente for second. The Brit was ahead of his fellow Chevrolet driver, but made a mistake early in the race at 130R and let the Frenchman through, triggering a spectacular fight which lasted for almost the whole race.

“I was ahead of Valente at the start of the race, but I made a mistake and he went through,” said Chilton. “With these cars it is not easy to stay behind a competitor, which is quite different to what I was used to for the last 13 years. I had a high heart rate in the car so I just had to calm down, but it was really hard out there. I was trying to get back past him, who is exactly in the same car as me, but I also had to keep Sébastien Loeb’s Citroën behind, and the C-Elysée was clearly faster than the Cruze.”

The Brit admitted he was waiting for Valente to make a mistake to make full use of it:”I just waited for the car in front to make a mistake and into Turn 14 he made just missed the apex by about half the width of the car, but that was just enough for me to squeeze in, touch the grass, get on the inside and get a good run out of the corner to pass him.”

The subsequent fight with Loeb allowed Chilton to open a gap which was precious for him to keep second ahead of the Citroën:”That [the overtake] also gave Loeb the chance to pass, I could see that happening behind me and that gave me a nice little gap to keep my place until the end of the race.”

The Race of Japan leaves Tom Chilton still in eighth in the championship, as the Brit made up for one point from his ROAL Motorsport team-mate Tom Coronel.