Target Competition’s Kris Richard believes that a top-five finish in the reverse-grid race of TCR Europe at Spa-Francorchamps would be the ‘perfect result’ and believes a good start is the key to attaining that.
The Swiss racer started ninth on the grid for race one yesterday, and made up positions at the start before dropping back and eventually recovering to finish seventh.
He told TouringCars.Net that driving a ‘clever’ race was the reason he emerged unscathed when others made contact.
“The start was pretty good,” said Richard. “I managed to gain three or four positions, and then on the end of the [Kemmel] straight due to the bad top speed I lost two positions back and then I was just smart enough to always be in the right spot.
“While others did mistakes and crashes, I was in the right spot to overtake and just trying to drive consistent with no mistakes and I think that was the key to the best possible result today with P7 I’m quite happy when you look at the circumstances we had.
“When I saw how many guys crashed and had contact I think I drove a smart race – maybe not the fastest – but a very smart and consistent race.”
When asked about driving standards, the 2016 FIA European Touring Car Cup champion spoke about the contact between the Honda duo of Josh Files and Stefano Comini.
“Some drivers are over-motivated. I was behind a group of four cars, and they were driving like this is the last corner.
“For me, wait maximum two laps and two cars will be out and it was like that on the start finish straight with the big impact between the two Hondas and sometimes you have to be clever.”
Richard is hoping to get off the line well in his Hyundai i30 N TCR, and believes he and teammate Reece Barr will need some luck to score a good result.
“From P2 I think it’s really important to catch a good start, and then I just have to try to drive consistently and maybe if we have luck, drivers behind us are involved in some fights and me and Reece [Barr] hopefully can make a gap to the others.
“But let’s see. I think finishing in the top five tomorrow would be a perfect result for us.”