Photo: WTCC Media

Tom Coronel rules out racing at Paul Ricard after heavy crash

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ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel is set to miss next weekend’s round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, after substantial damage sustained after a first lap crash with Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani at the start of the second race in Marrakech.

The Chevrolet Cruze TC1 will require substantial repairs after the crash at the start in an incident between the Dutchman and Mehdi Bennani. Coronel moved across on Bennani at the start making contact with the Honda’s front-left. Coronel maintains that Bennani then kept pushing and spun him around, while Bennani believes it was Coronel who was trying to squeeze him into the wall.

The stewards sided with Coronel and gave Bennani a drive-through penalty which dropped him down the order, but he was able to recover to fifth thanks in part to a mid-race safety car.

“The car is a banana,” said Coronel to TouringCarTimes. “I will not be in France for sure. The whole bodyshell needs to be repaired. When we load the car it’ll be in Barcelona on Wednesay and it needs to be in France on Thursday, so it’s absolutely impossible.

“I saw everything. I made a reasonable start, I’m in the lead, I’m allowed to change my line, I gave him the space, he gave me one soft touch and then he kept on pushing and then he turned to the right and it was clear on TV as well. He kept on pushing, kept on pushing and then he turned to the right. I didn’t move more to the left after the first touch…but he just kept on pushing and then he turned to the right.

Bennani, racing at his home track for the first round of the season, believes it was Coronel who caused the track, and that the incident could have been avoided, and rues the missed opportunity to fight with Sébastien Loeb for the victory.

“I have spoken two or three times with Tom, and I think he knows that he went too much to my side and he put me directly into the wall,” said Bennani to TouringCarTimes. “The first touch I think he knows that I am here, but on the second touch there was nothing I could do, because I am two-millimetres from the wall, what do I do? Do I crash into the wall. I know Tom, he’s my friend and I thought he’d see me…when I am 2mm from the wall, what can I do? I can’t release the throttle as I’d be in more bullshit, as everyone would crash into me.

“I stayed in my line, if anything I went more to my left more than my line. I felt very bad (when I heard about the drive-through penalty), because I think we had the potential to fight with (Sébastien) Loeb.”