Nicky Catsburg on Coronel battle: “That was really cool”

Sportscar and now also touring car star Nicky Catsburg had a great first weekend of the 2016 World Touring Car Championship season in France with Lada, saying his fight with Tom Coronel was something he really enjoyed, and something he doesn’t get to experience in his alternate career in endurance racing.

Catsburg qualified in the top five and followed that up with fifth in the main race, while putting on a show with countryman Tom Coronel in the opening race, with the Lada driver banging doors with Coronel’s Chevrolet Cruze throughout.

“I’m really pleased,” said Catsburg to TouringCarTimes. “This track was our nemesis last year, and in race two, which is the most representative race, I was able to follow the guys (José María López, Tiago Monteiro, Norbert Michelisz and Yvan Muller). We didn’t have the pace to do anything about them, but it was not as bad as last year.

“I felt really comfortable with the car, the traction was better, the tyre management was easier. OK, it was a boring race, but I was just following them and was just driving with a smile. I think now we’ve found our pace and we can only go forward, I hope this was still our worst track because then we can start getting podiums.”

Reflecting on his race one battle, where he came out on top after a race long duel with Coronel, where the two Dutch drivers joined each other in Coronel’s garage to review the race footage, Catsburg added:

“I was very happy with the fight with Tom. It was really cool and after the race we went to each other and had a good laugh about it. It’s something I miss in endurance racing because you never have anything like that. I was fighting with Tom for ten laps and that’s something that’s really cool about WTCC.”