Disappointment for Denis Dupont following engine issue at Zolder

Denis Dupont was unable to convert yesterday’s race-winning pace into another good result in today’s first two sprint races at Zolder, after the engine hose came loose on his SEAT León TCR at the start of the second lap of the first race.

Dupont had jumped ahead of the Volkswagens of Guillaume Mondron and Jonas de Kimpe to move up into second position behind Team WRT team-mate Mathieu Detry, but the 24-year-old RACB-backed driver was out with an engine issue on lap two, and was forced to start from the back of the grid for Race 2.

“It was just bad luck as it happened on the second lap,” said Dupont to TouringCarTimes. “I tried to finish the lap and get back to the pits, but I got an alarm so I had to stop the car.

“The guys worked really hard to get us back out on time so we could start the second race, but from the pits you already have a 12 second gap. The pace was really good, I think we had a good chance to finish well, but we have no control over things like this so there’s point being mad about it.”

Dupont went on to finish sixth in Race 2, and now moves clear of Stefano Comini in the standings and up to eighth along with co-driver Sam Dejonghe, who will race the car for the next two sprint races, starting from fourth on the grid for the first heat.