Hugo Valente shot at victory spoiled by clutch issues

FIA World Touring Car Championship regular Hugo Valente lost a great chance of scoring a good result by not starting Race 2 from pole position, which he had gained through the reversed grid.

The Campos Racing driver said to TouringCarTimes: “I came here to learn the track, which is not too difficult after all. It was a nice experience, though, these cars are fun to drive, although quite different compared to what I normally race, but it was still good fun. The Opel Astra OPC is not perfect but it would take time to extract the maximum potential out if it.”

Sports director Fernando Monje added: “We had a clutch problem, so Hugo could not start the race. It is a shame, because we know how good he is and he would have done a good job, I am sure. Unfortunately this is the way racing is, it can be cruel sometimes.”

Valente will be in action again next weekend at Buriram with the WTCC in Campos’ Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1.