Néstor Girolami hails Döttinger Höhe battle as “craziest overtaking of my life”

Néstor Girolami rescued what’s likely to be his best result of the weekend with third in the first race at the Nürburgring, following two intense fights at the famous Döttinger Höhe straight situated at the end of the circuit.

The Münnich Motorsport Honda driver lost out to the Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS of Frédéric Vervisch at the start of the race and fell to fourth, but then spent the next two laps chasing the Belgian driver, launching out of the Audi’s slipstream on lap two to try to make a pass, but the two drivrers had both given a slipstream to the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen of Rob Huff behind them, who managed to go by both of them and steal third.

Girolami, now ahead of Vervisch, continued in pursuit and bided his time before attacking Huff on the final lap, again at the back straight, passing Huff at the final corner and reclaiming the podium position.

“These two overtakes were the most intense moments of all my life,” said Girolami to TouringCarTimes.

“It was my strategy to let Rob by in sector three to cool the tyres down, and then in the last sector I caught him up to have a good exit before the last long straight, and then I knew that I had the opportunity to overtake him.

“But it was so difficult…and at one moment there was a big hit and that made me a little worried – but at the end at the last moment I had the inside for the apex so I knew I could keep flat out and he’d have to lift, so I won at the perfect moment.

“Rob was a very fair player, and racing like this is only possible if you have respect for the other driver,” he added.

Girolami will start from 24th on the grid for tomorrow’s race after failing to set a competitive lap time in yesterday’s second qualifying session, after his car was black-flagged for a mechanic issue, with his car above the noise limit.

“It was a shame I had this problem with the engine noise; so we’ve lost a lot of points already as we start last for both races, but we’ll push hard to try and score some points tomorrow.”