Sergey Afanasyev: “Honda will be faster in the next three races”

Sergey Afanasyev scored a season-best second place in Race 1 today at Valencia, Spain. The Russian driver wants to do more, though, and he said it clearly.

“I think it’s time to win now!” stressed the SEAT driver. “We were far off the pace in Shanghai but the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil team did an amazing job in finding the problems and solving them, so we were really quick here in Valencia. This championship is amazing because there is a lot of competition and it’s very equal. It was great to be between the ‘paella’ guys!,” joked Afanasyev referring to his Spanish team-mates.

Afanasyev talked about the the pressure team-mate Jordi Gené put him under: “Jordi and Pepe (Oriola) know the track much better than I do, and I also knew that it was their home race, so they were surely going to push like hell to get the best possible result. I’m glad I managed to hold on to my second place, especially because I was not too comfortable with the car towards the end of the race, which is something we need to look into going to Portimao. We have a big potential, there are a lot of things to learn for me about the front-wheel driven cars, as well as this car in particular. It was a great race, I’m really happy.”

The Russian was one of the drivers penalised for overtaking under the Safety Car. Afanasyev expressed his views on the matter with TouringCarTimes: “I don’t want to discuss the stewards’ decisions too much, because it’s their job to see what’s happening and react. I was just frustrated because when I saw the SC panels and the yellow flags I was in fourth and I backed off, but then I was passed by a few driver who hadn’t noticed. What I did was going back to my position, but that was regarded as overtaking under the Safety Car and I was given the penalty.

“I had no reason to do that on purpose, I was okay with my fourth place, I was going to deal with it later on in the race. I know it is very difficult for the stewards because they can’t know the entire story, they’re not in the car with us, so they have to react to what they see. The incident is closed for me, it’s part of the past.”

Despite a tough weekend for Gianni Morbidelli and WestCoast Racing, the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver is convinced that Honda will be faster in the next three races:”I think that if Honda get a weight break because of the performances in Qualifying, it is going to destroy the races in Portugal. Today they were much faster on the straight, and we know we are going to struggle against them in Algarve, Monza and Salzburg, [the next three races of the series].”

Afanasyev conceded that balancing the performances is not an easy job to do: “I believe that a good balance can be found, but it’s a difficult job. Anyway, I think that Honda will be too fast, because we just don’t have the capability to deliver the same speed on the straights. That is going to hurt us on the faster tracks such as the three I mentioned before.”

The Russian thinks that the performance advantage will be limited to the faster tracks, though, and is not concerned about it: “I am not too worried about Honda’s advantages though, because our most serious contender is Gianni Morbidelli, so if he’s faster he can go, we will catch him later. We just need to make the most out of what we have.”

Sergey Afanasyev now sits eighth in the championship, with 37 points to his name.