Tom Coronel is looking forward to his home round of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) at Zandvoort this weekend, where the Honda driver is hoping to secure a first podium finish of the season.
Coronel enjoyed his best weekend of the WTCR season last time out at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, where he picked up a trio of top ten results to boost his championship position.
But the biggest weekend of the year for the Dutchman will come on home soil this weekend, when he races at in World Touring Cars on his home circuit for the first time in more than a decade.
“I can’t wait to race in front of my home crowd at Zandvoort,” said Coronel. “The Dutch fans are the most passionate and knowledgeable in the world and when I race at home, it feels like they make me faster.
“As well as this, I have driven tens of thousands of laps at Zandvoort in my time as an instructor at the race school, although the resurfacing means that the knowledge of the track won’t quite be the advantage it might have been.”
Coronel expects that the famous hairpin at the first corner of the lap will prove to be a strong overtaking zone.
“I’ve always seen good fights at this track, it’s an historical track, the elevation is there, there are high-speed corners and there’s Tarzan of course, the first corner, where you can go easily with three people side by side and that’s just one corner where this is possible.
“Let’s hope that we will be able to continue the good performance of the Nürburgring, score some points and, who knows, perhaps even a podium finish!”
More than 100,000 spectators are expected at the event, which will also see F1 driver Max Verstappen completing demo runs in his car. Whilst race one takes place on Sunday, races two and three will be held on Monday, which is a public holiday across much of Europe.