Roberto Colciago says he was lucky to win at the Salzburgring with full ballast

Roberto Colciago took his third win of the season in the TCR International Series at Salzburgring in Race 2 from the reversed grid, putting himself right in the championship hunt, just three points behind Stefano Comini, but says the fact he won with maximum ballast shouldn’t be read into.

Colciago finished Race 1 in 12th after dropping back after losing out in a battle with Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Dan Lloyd, while in Race 2 he led from start-to-finish, with M1RA Honda team-mate Attila Tassi effectively his rear-guard.

“I had a good first race, but I was pushed out by another guy so I lost the train,” said Colciago.

“The second race was really good as I had a good start, and behind my team-mate Attila was fighting with Comini – and that was the key, I was looking out the mirror and just said thanks.”

Colciago says that without Tassi holding back the train of cars behind, he wouldn’t have been able to win in Austria.

“You can feel the ballast here; although I won, I didn’t really have the pace to win, but because of (Tassi and Comini) fighting behind me, I was able to take care of my tyres. Their fight was the key to my win.”

Colciago’s not counting the championship points yet, saying the season is seesawing dramatically from one race to the next.

“I think in this championship, every race one is able to win, the next race it’s another – there’s so many points, so many fast drivers and also with the ballast – here, we were lucky, but usually with the ballast you can’t be fast enough. To talk about the championship, you have to wait until the end.”

At the next weekend at the Hungaroring, Colciago will drop from 30kg to 10kg of success ballast, while Stefano Comini will carry the maximum 30kg, with the Alfa Romeo of Dusan Borkovic on 20kg.