Photo: PSP Images

Tom Chilton takes championship leap forward with double-podium at the Nordschleife

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton had his strongest weekend of the 2016 season to date, finishing second to the fellow Citroën of José María López in the opening race and taking third in the second, holding off a race-long challenge from countryman Rob Huff’s Honda Civic.

Chilton showed impressive pace throughout the weekend and was the fastest of the three Sébastien Loeb Racing-run cars in every session, with set-up tweaks and a replaced differential believed to play a part in the improved performance of the British driver’s Citroën C-Elysée WTCC this weekend.

“This circuit is the greatest race track in the world and words can’t tell you how amazing it is to sit here and to be second and third or win both the independents’ trophy,” said Chilton.

“The car was amazing but it wasn’t easy you know,” he added. “Every corner I pretty much nearly had an accident. You can ask Rob Huff in the last race, he probably saw me oversteer several times and Tom Coronel behind me in the first race.

“Actually I think a corner where Tom Coronel had a puncture I went through at about a 45-degree angle and almost flattened sixth gear because I was that slow, so while Tom’s drifting off with a puncture I’m understeering. Every corner was just very hard on all the drivers, and it was very hard on the car the driver and the tyres, I’m just so happy to here.”

Chilton has now closed up to 17 points from team-mate Mehdi Bennani in the independents’ classification, whilst he’s now seventh in the overall standings, just five points behind the factory Citroën of former RML team-mate Yvan Muller.

WTCC Independents’ standings after Germany