Tom Coronel scores first points in style with podium in Hungary

ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel secured his first points of 2015 five races in with tenth in the first race at the Hungaroring, and followed this up with second place in race two, his first podium since Beijing last season.

The Dutchman had a good start in race one, but avoided battles in the first race to take a safe tenth position, focussing on the second race where he had better tyres and a third-place spot on the grid.

“It seems like I never do the first two races in TC1,” said Coronel after the race. “In Argentina I did four laps in total and in Morocco I didn’t even do one lap in total, so here I was focussed to finish.

“I had a really good start in the first race. The Citroëns were fighting in the first corner, I was close to them and Hugo (Valente), but then I went off the throttle a little bit and then Tom Chilton and (Norbert) Michelisz overtook me on the outside. Then there was a soft touch from (Rob) Huff (when he passed), and I thought OK, I’ll concentrate on race two.”

From third on the grid, Coronel passed his team-mate Tom Chilton in the Chevrolet Cruze into the first corner and almost had a run at home hero Norbert Michelisz, who had a poorer start than usual in the Honda Civic WTCC, but had to slot in behind and settle for second as the Hungarian shot away to take the chequered flag with almost a ten second margin.

“The race was good, Michelisz was really fast. I tapped him a little bit in the first corner but not too hard, it was just racing, but he was faster so he could drive away,” said Coronel. “I had no pressure from my team-mate, I could see he could had some difficulties. It was a nice race, and nice to see Norbi’s crowd jumping and waving on the grandstands.”