Yvan Muller confident of clawing the gap back to team-mate López

After a strong weekend in Russia where four-time WTCC champion Yvan Muller took his first race one victory of the year and comfortably outperformed team-mate López, the Frenchman finds himself 35 points behind his Citroën Racing team-mate heading to this weekend’s race at the Slovakiaring, and believes key changes in the last few rounds means he can further close on the reigning champion.

Despite declaring in frustration that his championship was already over following the third race at the Hungaroring, when although he started from pole, he lost out at the start to López and finished second in the first race, the Frenchman reneged on that statement two weeks’ later at the Nürburgring, speaking in a press conference and indicating his earlier statement was simply one borne out of frustration.

“I didn’t think so many people would believe it, even if it’s not so, it is what I said,” admitted Muller.

“I just felt like it was then tenth time I’d been asked that question, so I decided to say something different and give you a bullshit answer, but nobody believed what I said the first nine times.”

Looking to this weekend’s races at the Slovakiaring, the former champion remarked:

“Since the Hungaroring, I have felt that the work we have put in is paying off,” he said. “I’ve changed lots of little things, in my preparation, my set-up and my driving. A combination of those factors has allowed me to perform better in qualifying and in the races.

“It’s a long season and we’re not even halfway through yet. I’m going to keep fighting till the end. The Slovakiaring has some similarities with the Hungaroring and Moscow Raceway, two circuits where I felt at ease, so I’m feeling pretty confident.”