Photo: WTCC Media

Esteban Guerrieri ‘in love with the championship’ despite disappointing results

Esteban Guerrieri led both free practice sessions and effectively scored pole position before his lap time was disallowed for a pit lights infringement at Termas de Río Hondo, Argentina. The home hero had looked like a strong possibility for a surprise win, or at least to challenge for it, but a series of problems on race day prevented the Campos Racing driver from delivering.

“It wasn’t the best day because we had a few problems with the clutch in the first race,” said Guerrieri. “I had a bad start and then we had a touch with a Honda Civic and it broke my upright, so I had to stop. In race two again we had no clutch so I made another manual start, which wasn’t ideal.”

Braking issues added to the problems, preventing the Argentinian from fighting for higher positions: “I made some positions back, but I got into a rhythm that wasn’t the best because I started to have problems with the braking. It wasn’t the best place but to finish the race it is still good for all the guys after all the effort, it’s cool and I’m happy with this. Thanks to everybody.”

After the action finished and the concentration was gone, Guerrieri admitted he loved the experience and would like to come back on a more regular basis: “Now the weekend has finished I would say I love the WTCC. I was focused on doing my best this weekend. It’s definitely a category that’s nice, it’s a world championship and this weekend I tested myself against a very good level of drivers, good guys driving out there and good teams as well. It’s the best touring car championship in the world and if there is a chance I would be very keen to analyse it and go forward.”