Craft-Bamboo Lukoil delighted with double podium

Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil scored a double podium finish, with star driver Pepe Oriola taking the runner-up spot starting from as far back as eighth on the grid. Sergey Afanasyev also took home a trophy from seventh after a nail-biting fight with both WestCoast Racing Hondas, with pole-sitter Kevin Gleason and former F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli both chasing the Russian during the last part of the race.

Third-placed Afanasyev is still getting to grips with the front-wheel driven SEAT, but still pulled out a very good result in the first race:”It was amazing and everyone did a fantastic job,” said the Russian. “I am delighted to be on the podium in the first race and I will make sure to give Pepe a good battle next race.”

In fact the three Leóns of the British team will start from the two front rows, with Jordi Gené on pole ahead of fellow SEAT driver Ferenc Ficza and Oriola and Afanasyev in third and fourth respectively.

Speaking of the Spanish touring-car star, Gené had an overheating issue which brought the power of his engine well below standards for safety reasons, which prevented him from fighting for anything better than seventh:”“The race was average, a little bit like the whole day,” admitted the Spaniard. “The start was ok but I was involved in an incident in the first corner so I had to slow down.”

Things went worse however when the engine temperatures started rising:”I managed to get through a couple of cars, but I was fighting with a pack of five cars with good rhythm but the temperature of my car was high, so my engine went into safe mode and I lost power.” Gené detached himself from the pack to give the engine a chance to cool down, which enabled him to finish the race:”I had to get into clear air and let it cool down, until I could pick up speed for the last couple of laps.”

After a disappointing qualifying, Craft Bamboo Racing CEO Richard Coleman found the results even more encouraging:”Obviously qualifying was a bit disappointing, we went slightly the wrong way on set up, so we were all pretty dejected about that,” admitted the Brit. Things went much better in the race for the team, though, and Coleman now has high hopes for tomorrow’s race:”Delighted to show good race pace of all three cars and we made the best of the opening laps. We are very happy to come away with a double podium in our first race and we have a good starting position tomorrow. Who knows, we may come away from here leading the championship.”

TCR Race 2 starts at 6.35 CET tomorrow.