Citroën’s José María López says it is an “amazing” experience, after his win in the first World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife made him the first driver to win a world championship race on the circuit since 1983.
López converted his pole position into a race one win in Saturday’s first race, with the championship leader once again unchallenged on his way to victory.
The Argentine later explained that the Nordschleife race was the race to win in 2015, hailing his C-Elysée car for its performance.
“It felt amazing,” said López. “Winning here, like I said yesterday, is something everybody wants. I knew I had to do a good start and I got a bit lucky because Hugo did not have a good start. I went into the Nordschleife trying to improve my rhythm.
“I had a set-up to be able to try to pull away from Séb [Loeb] in the beginning. I arrived in the long straight and had a good set-up so I knew it would be possible. Then we had a few drops of rain so I had to keep it clean but honestly the car felt very well.”
Fact: López’s win race one means he has now won at least one race in 14 out of the 17 events he has entered, only failing to win in Hungary, Slovakia and Beijing in 2014.
Race two saw López finish second after a sensational final few moments which saw him rise from second to fourth to extend his championship lead over Loeb to 50 points. Just minutes earlier the Argentine had avoided an accident when his team-mate Ma Qing Hua crashed out, costing López valuable seconds.
“We had a nice view of Ma doing a great show! He was on the limit and it was difficult because we were fighting between us, which is the spirit of the team,” said López. “We were losing time and I was getting nervous because it was the last lap.
“I thought at one point it was over and the reverse grid is not good for the guys starting at the back. I was thinking about Yvan [Muller] scoring more points than me. Then Ma went off and for a few seconds I didn’t know which way it would be and I had to slow down. I was very lucky and after that I saw a big gap and I thought what should I do – should I stay or should or try.
“It was a big gap, around three or four seconds but I started to push. I didn’t know if it would work but I tried to improve my pace. I tried to be quicker, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. Today it worked.
“I realised there was a possibility to catch up to Gabriele [Tarquini] at least. Two corners before the Karussel there is a very high-speed corner where I could catch him and starting the last section I arrived attached to Gabriele. We exit from the last corner of the Nordschleife – we had an aggressive set-up to win to be honest with a good top speed. I kept going and going and was really close. One metre less and I was not going to be able to pass.
“Tiago [Monteiro] was nice because he could have defended a bit but then I arrived in the last corner attached to Yvan. I think he was waving to the crowd. We were coming really quick, I braked and braked. Tiago hit me from the back but that was it.
“It was an amazing weekend for me and thanks again to the team and congratulations to the everyone. I am very proud to be part of this amazing team.”