ROAL celebrate first win since June 2009 with Tom Coronel

The Italian ROAL Motorsport team picked up their first race win in the World Touring Car Championship since Sergio Hérnandez win at Brno in 2009, after Tom Coronel lead from start to finish at Suzuka today.

The Dutchman swept into the lead from second place on the grid in race two and kept at bay Yvan Muller’s manufactuer backed Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T to take the second win for a BMW driver this year, and Coronel’s first win in three years.

The team had to work hard for the result too, after heavy damage in race one to the team’s BMW 320 TC required repairs within a short time period before parc fermé conditions were enacted between races.

“It has been an amazing day for our team,” said Team Principal Roberto Ravaglia. “The crash in race one risked to seriously compromise race two where starting from the first row we had the concrete chance of aiming at the victory.”

“(The team) have been superlative and fixed the car in record time while Coronel has been perfect in running a flawless race despite the pressure from rivals.”

Tom Coronel’s video summary of the race, including new footage of the multiple car crash at Turn 1 in the first race is below: