Belgian racer Maxime Potty was delighted to secure his third TCR Europe podium at Spa-Francorchamps after recovering from a dreadful start to finish third with a last-lap pass.
The Team WRT driver lined up third on the grid for the opening race but made a mistake and failed to engage first gear quick enough, dropping down to sixth at the start.
He then progressed throughout the race and passed Aurélien Comte’s Peugeot with an audacious move around the outside at Stavelot on the final lap.
Potty, who scored a double podium at his home round this time last year, told TouringCars.Net he was especially pleased to secure a third podium at the iconic Belgian circuit after his awful start.
“It’s very good because I messed up my start because I didn’t press first gear! It’s my fault, I lost a lot of places,” said Potty.
“But I had a good race after that and had good pace. Third place on the podium is great.”
Potty also credited Comte’s compliance in giving him enough room when he went for the move on the outside of Stavelot on the final lap, saying the Frenchman was “very fair” in his defence.
“It was on the very last lap, and I passed Comte there and he was very fair,” he said.
“It’s a very short run there, and I had a good run on Comte and I went to the outside. I took my line and it was OK.”
Potty will line up 8th on the grid for tomorrow’s reverse-grid race, and feels another podium to replicate his results last season could be on the cards.
“Maybe we can get another podium. But we’ll see the race and the start is difficult.
“We’ll have to see on the track.”
The second TCR Europe race at Spa-Francorchamps is set to get underway at 12:00 CEST.