Tom Coronel described his race weekend at the Hungaroring as ‘damage limitation’ after the Dutchman came away with two top ten finishes in the World Touring Car Championship.
Coronel went into the weekend knowing that strong results were possible at the twisty circuit, having taken a podium finish in 2015 in Budapest.
However, qualifying in 13th place for both of Sunday’s races gave the Dutchman an uphill task at a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.
“We came to Hungary with a lot of confidence,” explained Coronel. “We did well here last year and hoped to build on that. However, reality turned out to be different. The circuit has been resurfaced and where others were two seconds slower than last year, the difference was four seconds for us.
“We were unable to get the car up to speed and it just wouldn’t turn, so we kept searching for ways to improve, but we only had limited success. The result was only 13th place on the grid for both races.”
The Opening Race saw Coronel come home in ninth place, having made up most of his positions on the first lap, before he passed Zengő Motorsport’s Aurélien Panis for ninth on lap five.
“In the two races, I had my fair share of battles in the opening stages and quickly made my way into the top ten. We tried to limit the damage and to score some points. We also made a few more changes between the two races, which made the car handle a little bit better.”
Despite the changes, Coronel could only manage another ninth place finish in the Main Race, finishing just ahead of the penalised Rob Huff on the road.
“At the end of the second race, Rob Huff still came really close. I understood that he was trying to make his way up again after a drive-through penalty, but I still managed to keep him at bay in the dash to the flag.
“We managed to keep the damage limited, we scored points again and now we are focussing on the next round.”
Coronel leaves the Hungaroring tenth overall in the drivers’ championship standings on 20 points.
Watch: Tom Coronel video highlights