Stefano Comini focused on scoring points in Race 1

Stefano Comini took his first podium of the year in the Leopard Racing Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR. The 2015 Champion started from fourth and made up for a place lost at the start to finally jump up to third after overtaking B3 Racing’s Mat’o Homola.

“It (the weekend) was much better than in Bahrain of course,” said the Swiss. “In Free Practice 2 I was eleventh, so I completely changed the setup with my engineer and it was a good choice. After Qualifying the car was really good.”

Comini adopted a conservative strategy, which worked out well for him: “I adopted the same strategy as Gianni (Morbidelli) and Jean-Karl (Vernay), which was the right thing to do. The first half of the race was quite boring, but after that it was really good. I lost a place at the start because I wanted to avoid crashing the car on the opening lap, so I was really careful all race long, also when I passed (Mat’o) Homola and (Aku) Pellinen.”

The Swiss is not too optimistic for the second heat, when he starts seventh alongside team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay: “Leopard Racing did a very good job with the car, but we still have a lot of work to do to take a win. We are starting on the fourth row in the second race, so we will work for Spa-Francorchamps and hopefully we will be able to be further up the order there.”

Comini’s podium marks the first time he collects a trophy at the wheel of the Volkswagen Golf.