John Filippi says he needs to be more aggressive in the future, after the pole-sitter for the opening TCR Europe race of the season at Circuit Paul Ricard eventually had to settle for third.
Filippi was the standout performer of the day on Saturday in France, claiming a first-ever touring car pole position in hot conditions on the south coast of France.
The Target Competition driver was unable to convert his pole into a win, though, as he lost out to both Dan Lloyd and Mehdi Bennani at the start of the race.
Filippi was unable to recover his ground and had to settle for third, although it was still a maiden podium finish for the driver who had never previously broken into the top ten in TCR Europe, despite contesting 12 of last year’s 14 races.
“I really didn’t do the job at the start, that’s all,” said the Corsican. “I missed the start a little and I lost my first place to Lloyd and in the first corner I didn’t have so much space, so I had to manage the speed a little bit.
“It just wasn’t possible to catch the Honda and the Audi on the straights; I tried to manage my tyres as best as I could and see what happened.
“Two laps from the end I tried to overtake Mehdi but there were double yellow flags and so I had to abort my attempt.
“On the last lap, the tyres were gone and so any chance of second place was gone as well.
“I think I had a fair and clever race, but maybe I need to be a little more aggressive in future.”