Tom Coronel: “This is really what it is all about”

Tom Coronel is thrilled with his win in the second WTCC race at Suzuka ahead of fellow BMW driver, Mehdi Bennani, to claim a historic victory in the series’ 200th race.

The Dutchman dropped behind Bennani off the grid in race two, but managed to take the lead in the second half of the race, to take his fourth WTCC career victory after diving down the inside of the Moroccan driver in the second right-hand corner.

Three of Coronel’s previous WTCC wins have previously come at Suzuka, with the other scored at Slovakia during the 2013 season.

“If there ever was one race I wanted to win this year, it was this one,” said Coronel. “In Japan, where I already had so much success, winning the 200th WTCC race is just fantastic.

“This is really what it is all about. Fantastic.

The Dutchman also said that Bennani’s tyres dropping off gave him the opportunity to take the win after waiting for his opportunity to do so during the first half of the race.

“I kept up the pressure and I saw that Bennani’s tyres were losing grip.

“He started making more mistakes and once, this mistake was too big and I went past.

“After that, I increased my lead and completed the final laps without any problems to score my third WTCC race win.

“[It was] a nice result at a good moment.”