Kevin Abbring delighted with podium at “difficult” Zolder circuit

Kevin Abbring scored his first sprint race podium in the TCR Benelux series in Race 2 at Zolder, holding off the SEAT León TCR of Sam Dejonghe and scored key points in the championship, with the DG Sport Compétition Peugeot having a strong run in the championship both two weeks’ ago at Zandvoort, and at Zolder so far this weekend.

Abbring launched into the lead in the nimble 1.6 turbo Peugeot 308 at the start of Race 1, but soon dropped behind the Honda of Tom Coronel and the Team WRT Volkswagens and SEATs of Maxime Potty and Sam Dejonghe to finish fourth in the first race.

The World Rally Championship regular had another good start in Race 2 and was back up to second, then losing just one spot to Maxime Potty at the Villeneuve chicane, holding on to third position at the finish.

“It’s quite a difficult track,” said Abbring to TouringCarTimes. “It’s hard for the brakes, and our car has no pedal box and small brakes, but it’s lightweight. We did expect more after we were second in the long race at Zandvoort, and I’m still more a rally driver than a race driver, but I’m progressing and really happy with our performance, and a podium is awesome.

“I think we’re really happy with our performance though, and for the championship we’ve done a really good job.”

Abbring and co-driver Aurélien Comte, who will drive the car in this afternoon’s last two sprint races, are now joint-fourth in the standings, just 54 behind the Delahaye SEAT of Guillaume Mondron.