Nicki Thiim enjoys baptism of fire in touring car category

Nicki Thiim says his first real touring car race was “really fun” after being drafted in at the 11th hour to take the wheel of Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Audi TT this weekend, bringing the team their first win in the championship comfortably in the first race, and then getting involved in the fight in the reversed grid race two.

The Danish driver only briefly lost the lead in the first race at the first corner to Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Jordi Gené, but then took the lead back in the second corner and went on to take the win four seconds clear of the Spaniard’s SEAT León.

In race two, starting from tenth, it took longer for Thiim to work his way forward, making his way up to third and closing on the leading pair of Michel Nykjaer in the Target SEAT and team-mate Kelvin van der Linde’s Audi, before he damaged the wheel over the kerbs on lap ten.

“It was just a real touring car race,” said Thiim to TouringCarTimes. “Already on the first lap I got some small taps, and I thought OK, now we’re back to touring cars, I’m not used to that.

“It was really fun and really aggressive from the other guys. It was difficult in the hot temperatures as it was easy to lose power when you were driving behind people, but I was able to get through but I just made a mistake at the end and destroyed the rim.

“Overall I’m really glad, we showed the performance of the car and that’s what the team needed. (The win) was definitely possible, the pace was there for more, I was just waiting for a mistake from (Nykjaer and van der Linde), but then I made it.”