By taking two fifth placed finishes at the weekend, ROAL Motorsport BMW driver Tom Coronel strengthened his fourth place overall in the championship standings. Coronel leaves Tianma 120 points off third-placed Alain Menu and with a 26-points advantage over Gabriele Tarquini behind.
The weekend started on a positive note for Dutchman Coronel, as he lapped inside the top six in all of the practice sessions. In Saturday’s crucial qualifying sessions Coronel went fastest in Q1 and sixth in Q2, placing him 6th and 10th respectively for the two races.
“We were on the pace throughout the weekend, which was shown by our fastest time in first qualifying, but the problem was that this meant tenth place on the grid because of the reversed grid for race two,” said Coronel. “That was quite annoying, but things are difficult to judge at a short track like this. We also had to prevent dropping out of the top 10 and being sidelined for second qualifying. In that session, I ended up sixth, but only one tenth of a second from second place. It really was that close.”
In the first race Coronel got off to an average start and was passed by Yvan Muller. However he overtook Tarquini on the following lap to move into sixth, and on lap 18 he took advantage of Norbert Michelisz’s brake problems late in the race to move into fifth where he would stay until the chequered flag.
“Halfway through the race, I lost a little bit of speed due to problems with the rollbar,” said Coronel. “As a result, I had oversteer all the time, so I had to powerslide through the corners quite often. Fortunately, I had enough exit speed out of the corners, so that went well. Fifth place was all I could manage at this track.”
Starting from tenth for the second race, Coronel made a significantly stronger start than in the first race to move into sixth on the opening lap. This meant that he could attack and, after benefiting a position when Colin Turkington locked his brakes into turn one, Coronel began to apply pressure to Rob Huff for a podium position.
“With the headlights of my car ablaze and a few little touches here and there, I tried to gain a position, but ‘Huffie’ didn’t give in,” explained Coronel. “On the final lap, I tried it once more and that went well until he went a little bit too much sideways, which made me lose my speed and one position. I really had to try to get that final podium slot here. Unfortunately, it turned out to be different and I finished fifth once again. When you don’t try, you don’t succeed. Now, I tried and it went differently.”
Coronel eventually took another fifth placed finish in the race – something that team boss Roberto Ravagalia was pleased with as the Dutchman guaranteed himself the position of top BMW driver in 2011.
“Today’s results increased our advantage in the fight for the fourth place that is our main target for the season,” said Ravaglia. “Coronel ran a clever first race without taking excessive risks, while in race two after a very good race he fought relentlessly with a lot of determination.”