Photo: Jacques Letihon Photographe

Pierre-Yves Corthals delighted with Opel improvements, rues lost opportunity for win

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DG Sport Compétition looked set to win the qualifying race on Friday at Zandvoort, with Pierres-Yves Corthals handing over the team’s Opel Astra TCR to team-mate Frédéric Caprasse in the lead of the race, before Caprasse made an error and crashed out at Scheivlak. Regardless of the result, Corthals is happy with the pace and development of the young TCR car.

The Astra has been developed behind the scenes away from the track from the TCR International Series after a tough debut in Bahrain back in April, but the car is on track for the second time in the TCR Benelux series, where Corthals and Caprasse also showed strong pace at the season-opener two months ago at Spa-Francorchamps.

This weekend, Corthals was fastest of all in free practice, and went on to build a strong lead in the 60-minute qualifying race ahead of the chasing field of Volkswagens, SEATs and Hondas, which have had an additional year of development over the new Astra model.

“The car is working really well,” said Corthals to TouringCarTimes. “Opel Motorsport have worked a lot on the car and it’s really competitive. OK we are light for the moment, but it’s working well. It doesn’t destroy the tyres at all and also the engine is very good.”

“Also, here the turbo and engine power delivery is more stable, as in Spa there’s a lot of variation, but here the car is a lot more consistent.”

The Belgian lost the lead of the race however due to an odd moment on lap 12, which dropped him behind the Volkswagen of Loris Hezemans.

“I was six seconds ahead of the second placed car, but then my handbrake came on and I had a lot of problems with my car,” he explained. “I said on the radio my car isn’t working, and they said try my handbrake, which I thought was completely crazy, but then I checked the handbrake and it was in the on position, so I put it on off and the car was fine. I really couldn’t understand how this was possible.

“Unfortunately my team-mate then made a mistake in the middle of the track and he went out and our race was finished while we were in the lead, which was a shame.”