Photo: TCR Series

Stefano Comini battles hard to close fight for the championship

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Comtoyou Racing’s Stefano Comini scored his second victory of the 2017 TCR International Series at Monza, in a weekend that was far from perfect for the reigning champion.

The Swiss driver had a difficult day on Saturday, as he had technical difficulties with his Audi RS 3 LMS, finishing the first race in eighth position.

“Yesterday was a bad day for me; I had difficulties with the brakes as the weight on them was too much. I told the team the brakes needed more air, as I was pressing the pedal and the car wasn’t stopping, so it was tough”, Comini told TouringCarTimes.

The situation changed this morning, with Comini starting from third on the grid. At the start, both Craft-Bamboo’s James Nash and the Swiss overtook Hugo Valente, with the reigning champion taking the lead on the second lap. “The race was great, and we had a funny first lap. My plan was to get to the lead as quickly as possible and, when I was in front, I just tried to keep the order behind me” said the Comtoyou driver.

Comini had to endure the attacks of M1RA’s Roberto Colciago in the final laps, with the Italian driver determined to repeat yesterday’s victory. The Audi driver enjoyed the challenge: “I have to say that Roberto was a bit porcellino (piggy) in the race, and he made it difficult to keep the position, but it was fun to fight and I won in the end.”

The reigning champion is now third in the standings, 18 points behind the leader, former team-mate at Team WRT Jean-Karl Vernay.

Speaking about his outlook on the championship fight, Stefano Comini said: “It’s good I’m third in the classification now, I will continue pressing for my third title. I don’t have any special strategy, other than that I wake up every morning and just think that my target is to win. It’s good to have a team-mate that is fast and can help develop the car, it helps the team get good results, but it would be better if I also had some help from him, like we saw Rob Huff letting Jean-Karl through the other day. But we will continue fighting.”