Tom Coronel pleased to match personal best

Tom Coronel said he was pleased to have matched his personal best result after qualifying in fifth place for the second meeting of the World Touring Car Cup season at the Nürburgring.

The Dutch racer bounced back from driveshaft failure in the second free practice session to head the Audi drivers in a truncated qualifying session having been the first driver to tackle the Nordschleife in near darkness on the final runs.

Coronel will now hope to build on his qualifying performance in the two three-lap races on Friday and Saturday as he seeks to add to the fourth place finish he secured in the opening meeting at Zolder.

“P5 is a good qualifying result and the car felt good,” he said. “I was surprised by the grip and could have carried more speed in some of the corners on the second run, but I’m happy considering that we had some issues in practice with the driveshaft failure.

“I’m the first Audi on the grid which is good and my team-mate Nathanaël Berthon has pole for race one. The Nordschleife has been good to me today.”

Berthon’s pole for the reverse grid opening race is currently dependent on any penalty for Santiago Urrutia after he missed the weigh bridge in the session.