Best weekend of the year for Tom Coronel in Austria

With his first podium finish of 2014, holding off the Citroën C-Elysée of José María López in the first race at the Salzburgring, Tom Coronel claimed his best result of the season and despite a terrible start to the year, is now just two points shy of being the leading Chevrolet driver in the standings.

The Dutch driver had a great start in the first race, fighting past Sébastien Loeb’s Citroën into the second chicane and briefly taking second, before falling behind López before Turn 9, but was able to recover that position later on after an uncharacteristic mistake by the Argentinian at the first chicane.

“Race one was really good, I was strong, I was a little bit lucky with López’s mistake,” said Coronel to TouringCarTimes. “I could see López had some difficulties with the front tyres, that’s why he couldn’t overtake me. He was very aggressive in the first three laps which helped me in the end.

“In race two I was fighting, but it was just too difficult to overtake. I overtook (Mehdi) Bennani, which I think was a little risky, around the outside of Turn 9 when I was side-by-side. I think it was a good weekend, step-by-step was growing.

“I made two really good starts, on the first start I was quicker than Yvan and López, and in the second race I was up to P5 but then someone hit me in the rear, I’m not sure who hit me, and then López got past me.”

“By far it’s my best weekend of the year.”

The next round of the Championship is at the Moscow Raceway on June 8th, where Coronel was very competitive last year in the BMW 320 TC, but admits things might be a little different in the front-wheel drive Chevrolet RML Cruze.

“Last year in Russia I was P2 in qualifying by one-thousandth of a second, so I feel good in Russia…the circuit I like as it’s very technical, but we still have some work to do, that’s for sure.”