Photo: WTCC Media

Tom Coronel: “We surprised ourselves” after stunning P4 lap in France

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Tom Coronel put the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze in fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Main Race for the opening round of the WTCC, qualifying ahead of the works Ladas and Volvos in the car which has had the least pre-season testing.

The Dutch driver showed good pace in the wet on Friday, and after sitting out the morning’s free practice session to save tyres, produced a stunning lap in Q2 to put his car safely into Q3, which saw him secure fourth on the grid despite a brake issue on his run thanks to countryman Nicky Catsburg missing his slot in the one-lap qualifying shootout.

“We’ve already surprised ourselves,” said Coronel to TouringCarTimes. “In Vallelunga (testing) we did a 1:37.0, and yesterday in the wet I was also going very well. I was running P3 before I crashed and ended up P6, so we know the car is much better than last year.”

There are a few changes on the car compared to last year, but the 43-year-old puts the improvement mostly down to the focus on him alone, with the team having slimmed down to a one-car operation.

“I have the new rear suspension which last year I never had, which is a step forward,” he said. “My engineer was also the team manager last year, and now he’s just my engineer, so it’s being in the right place at the right time and I think we’re hitting the sweet spot. I don’t need team-mates to learn from, I’ve been doing this for 27 years”

Despite the lack of upgrades compared to the four manufacturer-backed rivals, Coronel says it’s the base strength of the RML-developed Chevrolet Cruze TC1 that is key to the team’s performance.

“There is no development, this is the car, but it shows that RML made a brilliant car. It shows the car is capable of doing things people didn’t know. We only had one test, so imagine if we did the 20 test days the manufacturers are doing, so I think the car is good enough to show potential, give me 20 days testing and I’ll be playing with those guys, mileage is everything.”

Coronel’s post-qualifying video is below: