“More positives than negatives” for Jack Young after Zandvoort Race 1

Brutal Fish Racing’s Jack Young says there are ‘definitely more positives than negatives’ following the opening TCR Europe Series race at Zandvoort despite being deprived a maiden victory by Tom Coronel.

The Northern Irishman led for the bulk of the first race of the weekend from pole position in his Honda Civic Type-R but was passed by Comtoyou Racing’s Coronel late on.

Young finished second, his best result in TCR Europe and was magnanimous in defeat and believes there is yet more possibilities in Sunday’s second encounter.

“It was a tough race from start to finish,” Young said post-race.

“The Audis at the start were right on my bumper; I don’t know what happened between Tom and Nicolas but it gave me some breathing space and then I started to relax a little.

“The guys came on the radio and told me to go faster because Tom was coming, so I pushed and pushed but in the end he was so fast.”

Young was the fastest driver in both of the qualifying segments and looked like replicating this form at the start of the race itself. This was particularly evident after Coronel and Baert came together when the pair were disputing second at Turn 10.

Contact between the two was made, which forced Baert into the gravel on the exit of the corner, temporarily slowing down Coronel and dropping the Dutchman behind Comtoyou Racing team-mate Dušan Borković.

But Coronel’s raw speed was just as strong as Young’s and, having made it back into second, closed in on and passed Young in the final laps.

For Young, he had no complaints about Coronel’s better late-race pace.

“Fair play to him, he drove a brilliant race and deserved to win but we’ll see what will happen tomorrow.”

“We’re still at the learning curve stage of my career so hopefully in the years to come I’ll improve and have some proper battles. There were definitely more positives than negatives from that one and I’m excited for Race 2.”