Tom Coronel: “I’m not going to make life easy for them”

Tom Coronel starts from pole position for the reversed grid opening race for the second time in a row this season, and the ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet driver says he’ll not make it easy for his pursuers on Sunday.

Coronel will start the first race at Monza ahead of the privateer Citroën of Mehdi Bennani, with the Campos Chevrolet of Esteban Guerrieri, the man who deprived him of victory three weeks’ ago in Morocco starting in third.

A brake problem saw Coronel throw away his lead in Marrakech, but the Dutchman says they won’t have the same problem in Italy.

“We don’t have the same kind same of brake issues here as we have in Marrakech and Japan, but I’m still a sitting duck,” said Coronel to TouringCarTimes. “I’ll make myself as wide as possible, but here it’s quite easy to overtake.

“The Chevrolet gives very good slipstreams as it’s very wide and very big, but I don’t give presents during the race; I’m going to make life as hard as possible for the people behind me.”

Coronel hopes to be able to hold off the pack behind him, but is mindful that the fast Volvos and Hondas further down the top ten could work their way forward, with double victories for the same driver the order the last three times the WTCC has been to Monza.

“The first corner is always chaos, so then we’ll see. Mehdi and Guerrieri I should be able to keep under control, but they’ll be under attack from the Hondas and the Volvos, and then they’ll be after me.”