Photo: TCR Media

Pepe Oriola’s Race 2 struggles caused by contact at the start

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Pepe Oriola’s difficult weekend continued on Sunday at Estoril, Portugal, as in the second race the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver struggled after a contact at the start with fellow SEAT driver and pole sitter Loris Hezemans.

“Nothing was easy for me this weekend,” said Oriola. “I have struggled a lot with the tyres due to the 30 kilos of success ballast, but in the second race I suffered from a broken steering after a contact with Hezemans at the start.”

Despite the damage the Spaniard continued to finish tenth, bagging one point in the championship: “I chose to continue to bag at least one point. Although I lost the lead in the championship I am still quite close. It’s time to forget the Estoril weekend and focus on Spa-Francorchamps, where I will be ballast-free and hopefully I will visit the podium again.”

Oriola now sits third in the championship, 14 points shy of new championship leader Gianni Morbidelli in the WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR.