ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel says he is “really disappointed” after twice crashing out of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races in Marrakech, labelling the circuit ‘Marracrash’.
Coronel, who was taken out in spectacular fashion at the circuit in 2014, was also in the wars in 2015. Having qualified in ninth position, Coronel started from sixth as a result of penalties being applied to other drivers in front.
However the Dutchman was clouted by team-mate Tom Chilton heading into the first back straight chicane on the opening lap, collecting significant damage to the front-right suspension on his Chevrolet.
With his ROAL Motorsport mechanics working flat out to repair the car for race two, Coronel was able to line up in second on the grid. Unfortunately, race two would prove to be even shorter than the first for Coronel, who was hit from behind by Norbert Michelisz, ending the race in the turn one barriers.
“This is not funny anymore,” said a frustrated Coronel. “I am a positively thinking person and I know that something can always happen during a race, but being punted off twice without being able to do anything about it is really disappointing.
“In the first race, it was my team-mate who was at least five car lengths behind me and simply braked too late. He apologised afterwards, but that didn’t help me either. There was pretty big damage to the right front side of the car and the team did everything to have that repaired in time for the second race.
“In that race, I had a good start. Perhaps, it didn’t look like it, but to me it felt good. However, once again, it didn’t take long to be hit by Michelisz. He ran into the back of my car and kept pushing. For me, it all ended up in the wall with massive damage to the front end.
“For me, it is more ‘Marracrash’ than Marrakech. Let’s hope that the damage can be repaired in time.”
Having also failed to finish race two in Argentina, and finishing outside the points in the season opening race, Coronel has yet to score any points in this year’s championship.