Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Jordi Gené says that “everything went as planned” after claiming his second TCR International Series win of the season in race one in Sochi.
Gené won the opening race of the weekend in Russia, taking a lights-to-flag victory to beat team-mate Pepe Oriola to the win.
The result, combined with a fifth-place finish in race two, moves the experienced driver to within 20 points of new championship leader Stefano Comini, and just seven points shy of third-placed Gianni Morbidelli.
Afterwards, Gené admits that having his team-mate in second place gave him extra reassurance, despite Oriola applying pressure throughout the race for the win.
“The race was just fantastic, everything went as planned and the SEAT cars seemed to like this track a lot,” said Gené. “Having Pepe Oriola behind me gave me some confidence that he wouldn’t do anything silly that could jeopardize a good team result, something very important here, in the home track of our sponsor. Still, he was better in some parts of the circuit, and I was in others, so nothing was easy.
“I think my brake balance wasn’t ideal and that showed mostly in Turn 14, where Pepe could brake much later, gaining almost 40 metres. I feared he could take a tow there and pass me but luckily, that didn’t happen.”
Gené joins Comini and Morbidelli as the only drivers to have scored more than one victory in the 2015 season.