Tom Coronel looking ahead to ‘good chance’ of victory

ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel will start on the front row for the reversed race two grid for only the second time this season, after last starting from pole at Donington Park, and admits there’s a good chance of a turning that into a season’s best result on race day.

Coronel, along with Dahlgren, Tarquini and the three Chevrolets managed to bide their time in the first qualifying session, which sets the order for the reversed race two grid. Tom Coronel’s lap putt them in the best position of those six drivers, and he will provisionally start behind fellow BMW driver Franz Engstler on the grid for race two, assuming neither car is forced to breach parc fermé after the first race.

“There is a chance,” said Coronel to TouringCarTimes on his chances in the second race tomorrow. “In Donington I blew it. I was leading the race and I made a small mistake, the same can happen here. But at least there is a good chance.”

“Tomorrow you don’t know what happens, I’ve always made fabulous starts so maybe now you don’t, it’s always difficult to judge. At least I have a better chance than the people who are behind.”

For the first race, Coronel secured fifth on the grid, behind who he’s determined are his main rivals in the championship, the non-independent classified and non-Chevrolet equipped Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, though Coronel admits he didn’t expect to be so close to them on the grid here in Valencia.

“I was surprised. We know that the SEATs are fast here, they (the drivers) know this circuit very well, the car suits this circuit very well, so to be honest I was a little bit surprised. I thought I would be sixth/seventh/eighth. First, it’s close, that’s interesting…and second, at least in front of one Chevy and in the area of my people for the championship.”

Tom Coronel’s video review of the qualifying session is below: