Photo: TCR Series

Mike Halder not thinking about the championship despite strong win at Barcelona

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Mike Halder claimed a strong victory at Barcelona on Saturday, reducing the gap in the TCR Europe standings to just two points behind Brutal Fish’s Daniel Lloyd.

Despite the result however, the Team Halder driver is taking his possible options to the title one step at the time.

Halder started from second place on the grid at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R TCR, overtaking pole sitter Mat’o Homola’s Hyundai at the start. Halder dominated the race, becoming the only driver to score a second victory in the current season so far.

“I’m really proud of the whole team, with the second win of the year,” said the German driver to TouringCarTimes. “We joined TCR Europe very late so we are very happy to have this speed and to win here for the second time.

“Back in 2018 we won the Sunday race, here we won Saturday’s. I’m really happy to have this success and score big points for the championship. Many thanks to all my sponsors and to all my team members who gave me this chance.”

Tyre wear is an issue for the TCR cars at Barcelona, with Halder using new slicks for Saturday’s race. On Sunday, and with the uncertainty about the weather, the reverse grid rule means that Halder will start from the ninth place on the grid and is not making any guesses about what to expect.

“I’ll try my best, I think it will be a hard fight from P9,” added the German driver. “I think other guys are also very fast. We need to make sure that we have a good package for the whole distance, because today the front tyres were very destroyed at the end. We’ll make some small changes and see.”

Halder’s victory, together with championship leader Daniel Lloyd’s failure to score any points, has taken the German driver to second place in the standings with 171 points; just two behind the Briton. Despite the situation, the Team Halder driver is taking the season one race at the time.

“The season is long,” explained Halder. “When I look behind, Monza wasn’t good for us, we had two zeros there, like Daniel (Lloyd) here today and also in Monza, so I think the season is long and we have to see until the last race, because all guys are so close together.

“So we have to make sure that we score good points every time and see how we are at the end.”