Néstor Girolami hails “fantastic” weekend as he assumes the championship lead

Argentinian driver Néstor Girolami has called the Hungary weekend of the World Touring Car Cup a “fantastic weekend”, after he won the first two races and has left the circuit with the lead of the standings for Honda, deposing Lynk & Co’s Thed Björk, who’d led after Morocco.

The Münnich Motorsport driver had secured pole position on Saturday, which he duly converted to his first race win since China in 2017, counting both his difficult season in the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship last year with Peugeot.

On Sunday in Race 1, he drove from sixth to first over the first lap and took his second win a row to tie on points with team-mate Esteban Guerrieri, while sixth in Race 3 with Guerrieri not finishing saw to it that Girolami now leads the points.

“For us, it was a fantastic weekend,” said Girolami. “I started the second race from P6, and I didn’t imagine I’d be in P1 on the first lap. It was a crazy first lap for everybody. I was in the right place at the right time, and this was the key of the second race.

Reflecting on his team-mate’s DNF in Race 3, he added: “I’m sorry for Esteban; he had really good pace and deserved to win the third race. In my race, I made a really good start, but after the first corner I didn’t get good traction and somebody hit me on the inside, and (Thed) Björk and (Mikel) Azcona overtook me at Turn 2, so I thought I’d not take a risk and look to keep the position following my two victories.”

Girolami’s lead is now ten points over Guerrieri heading to Round 3 of the WTCR at the Slovakiaring in two weeks’ time.