Antti Buri has successful TCR International debut in Spa
Finland’s Antti Buri helped Team WRT complete a 1-2-3 at their home race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, qualifying on pole for the reversed grid and driving to finish third behind team-mates Jean-Karl Vernay and Stefano Comini in a one-of appearance in the championship.
Buri, who one week ago won the second race at the Sachsenring in the ADAC TCR Germany series in his privately entered SEAT León Cup Racer, was part of Volkswagens first 1-2-3 result in TCR in Spa today, fighting off a charge from B3 Racing’s Mat’o Homola in the SEAT León throughout the race.
Buri’s race two went much better than race one, when he fell to the back along with Sergey Afanasyev’s SEAT when the two drivers bogged down as the lights went out. In race two, Buri lost out to Jean-Karl Vernay into the first corner, with the Frenchman going on to take the victory, but Buri wasn’t too upset about the lost opportunity for victory.
“I didn’t want to ruin my race in the first corner, as yesterday I messed up the start, so I wanted to see the chequered flag and not do any mistakes,” said Buri to TouringCarTimes.
“It’s good for the team, they’ve had a hard start to the year, I think a 1-2-3 is a really positive boost for them.”
The appearance in TCR International Series this weekend was a last-minute deal with Team WRT, following on from his success in the new-for-2016 German series last weekend.
“I really enjoy driving the TCR car. In Germany I run my own team so we’re a little bit smaller, so it’s been interesting to come here and see how a bigger team works, and see how the competition is here,” he added.
