Double podium in Bahrain leaves Hugo Valente “over the moon”

Hugo Valente came third in today’s Bahrain Race 2. The Craft-Bamboo driver took the result after a race-long fight with WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay, and almost caught team-mate James Nash for second. A penalty in Georgia meant he lost a podium result he had obtained on track, but including that result the Lukoil-backed driver scored three podiums in a row.

“I’m very happy”, admitted the Frenchman. “The biggest part of the job was today because starting from P8 was always going to be more difficult than yesterday. This is my third podium finish in a row and I’ve only finished three races so I’m really happy with a double podium from this weekend for sure.”

A good points haul after Bahrain leaves Valente optimistic and satisfied with his performances: “I said it was really important to score a lot of points this weekend and so I’m over the moon with the performance.”

The Frenchman wanted to catch and overtake his team-mate, but tyre degradation prevented him from trying to attack the Brit: “I thought I was going to catch James at the end but I had a lot of tyre degradation as well. I’m really happy for him as he had a really difficult weekend in Georgia so it’s good to share a first podium with him. I hope there will be a lot of others this season.”

The SEAT driver admitted he had fun during the race, as he overtook and defended from several drivers: “It was a fun race with lots of overtaking and defending and Vernay was like my bodyguard, pushing everyone off in front and then keeping Roberto Colciago behind. I’m looking forward to Spa now, I know the track and it will be interesting to see how the car behaves there.”