Néstor Girolami happy with first outing with Honda at Slovakia

Reigning Super TC 2000 champion Néstor Girolami was 12th fastest in testing at the Slovakiaring, driving the Nika International Honda Civic this weekend, and was happy with his initial progress, saying he’s taking the weekend step-by-step for his World Touring Car Championship debut.

Girolami, only the fourth Argentinian driver to take part in a WTCC race after Leonel Pernía, José María López and Camilo Echevarria, was 1.7 seconds from Rob Huff’s fastest time in the Lada Vesta, which is running 60kg lighter than the Honda Civic WTCC this weekend due to strong results in recent races for the Japanese marque.

“I am very happy with my first time with the car,” said Girolami to TouringCarTimes. “It’s a new circuit for me and for the car. The feeling with the car with new tyres was really good. I think it will be even better tomorrow as I have a lot of things to try to improve. For me it’s (about) good experience, making no mistakes, taking things step-by-step and to be careful.”

The Honda is the Argentinian’s second experience in TC1 after testing Lada’s Vesta following the Hungaroring, but on the differences between the two, it was difficult to make a comparison.

“The Lada I tested at the Hungaroroing, which is a very different track to this,” explained Girolami. “This track is very technical and quite different to Hungary, a fast first corner and a very fast second corner with very long apex corners, so nowhere you can really compare.”

Girolami was just two-tenths of a second behind reigning WTCC Champion and fellow countryman José María López, who was tenth fastest in the Citroën C-Elysée, but Girolami said his focus wasn’t to look at what his former Super TC 2000 rival was doing.

“It’s not important to compare at the moment. What’s important is I feel comfortable with the car and the track and the team, not to compare with Pechito, he has (his own) championship and another car and team.”