Tom Coronel: “I knew I had strong chances at street circuits”

Tom Coronel took his first win of the 2016 season in the opening race at Marrakech, Morocco. The Dutchman made no mistakes and kept championship leader José María López at bay to claim the first Chevrolet win of the year.

“I knew I had strong chances at street circuits and free practice went quite well already,” said the ROAL Motorsport driver. “I qualified seventh and therefore I was not really happy, but at the start the Volvo had a bad getaway and so I knew Yvan (Muller) would have been blocked.”

After the start the incident between Lada’s Hugo Valente and Münnich Motorsport’s James Thompson paved the way for Coronel to take the lead: “When I saw (Hugo) Valente hit (James) Thompson I thought ‘That’s it, thank you boy!’, and when after two laps my team told me he had a drive through penalty I already knew, I saw it very clearly. He had taken a big lead but I let him go, knowing he would have had a penalty. I then saw Pechito (José María López) was playing with me, as he should have, and I knew he would have attacked me in the middle of the race and then at the end.

“He had brake issues and I could see that, which is why he tapped me a couple of times, but I knew it was not intentional and down to braking issues. It was under control, he is playing for the championship, and he is a double World Champion so he had to attack me, but I know he is a fair driver. It was going to be mine unless I made mistakes, and I didn’t.”

When asked if he felt the pressure of the Argentinian, Coronel said he was in control for the entire race: “I’ve been racing for a long time, so I was in control. I could see he took some distance and then came back, and there were two places where he could overtake me, at the hairpin and it would have been risky and then on the back straight, but I think I had a little bit better traction and I just tried to look after my brakes.”

When asked if he thinks he can repeat the feat and take another win this season, the ROAL Motorsport driver picked Portugal’s Vila Real as another favourite venue: “I think I always have a good chance on street tracks, such as Vila Real. I was robbed of a chance to fight last year, so I want to try to repeat this again. I like bumpy and difficult tracks, just like the Nordschleife or Macau. It is also very difficult to overtake in Vila Real so you need to do well in qualifying.”

Coronel will start the main race from eighth on the grid.