ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel says that he is happy to have scored points in both World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races in Japan, despite failing to step on the podium in the country in which he has had the most success.
Coronel has won three times previously in Japan, including taking victory last season in race two. However this year the Dutchman would fail to step on the podium at all, scoring a brace of points finishes in seventh and fourth in the two races respectively.
The Chevrolet driver admitted after the weekend that he was not too disappointed to have missed out on the chance to stand on the podium in front of his many Japanese fans.
“Of course, a podium finish was my goal, but the peak just wasn’t there,” explained Coronel. “It went well, but not well enough to score a top three result. Bearing that in mind, I am quite happy with the world championship points I have scored here.
“With my history in Japan and the many fans I have here, I would have loved to be on the podium once again, but unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.”
Race one proved to be a relatively quiet affair and in Coronel’s case he admitted that he was looking to race two, where he started from third on the grid.
“In the first race I had a good, but not a great, start,” added Coronel. “Then you lose contact to the front runners right away and you are left out there, all alone in no man’s land, so to say. I moved up one place after Yvan Muller’s retirement, but that was all. Obviously, I had my mind set on the second race as in between the two races there was only little time to repair and therefore preventing any damage was the main thing.”
A poor start in race two limited Coronel’s progress as he slipped behind the Zengő Motorsport Honda Civic of Norbert Michelisz at the start of the race. Coronel went on to finish the race in fourth, failing to make any further progress in the race.
“For the second race, I slightly changed the set-up of the car and put fresh tyres on the front axle,” said Coronel. “I was on the second row of the grid alongside Michelisz’s Honda, but he had a rocket start and took my third place.
“My car started understeering pretty soon and I didn’t want to ruin my tyres straight away. So, just like in the first race, it was a matter of clever driving, hoping for others to make a mistake and wait for opportunities to occur. It was by no means a boring affair.
“When I saw the three Citroëns getting closer and closer in my rear-view mirror, I knew one thing for sure: I wasn’t going to let them past! A nice battle followed and the good thing is that I managed to stay ahead of them. Too bad that it wasn’t enough for me to collect a trophy, but as I said, I am very happy with the world championship points I have scored.”