Néstor Girolami was pleased claim a maiden podium in the TCR Europe series at Circuit Paul Ricard, even though the PSS Racing stand-in driver didn’t have the pace to challenge for the win in the end.
Girolami was standing in this weekend for Viktor Davidovski who was unable to travel due to coronavirus travel restrictions introduced by the North Macedonian government.
The Argentine driver had set the pace in Friday’s second practice session, before race one saw him claim fifth after having started the race in fourth.
The reverse grid for Sunday’s second race put the Honda driver in seventh on the grid, and after a fast start Girolami was up to fourth on the opening lap.
The World Touring Car star then got past Teddy Clairet for third on the second lap, which ultimately became second when Sami Taoufik was handed a drive-through penalty.
Unfortunately for Girolami he was unable to close down the two-second lead Mike Halder had built up, with the hot 50-degree track temperatures making tyre wear high on the fast circuit.
“I’m really happy with the result,” said Girolami. “Yesterday we had a lack of top speed because of the hot temperatures so today we decided to attack on the very first lap, from P7 to P4 pretty much immediately.
“Then I went for P3 and I thought maybe I could go for P2 but then Taoufik in the Audi had to serve a penalty, so I got P2 for free!
“I’d put a lot of stress on the front tyres at the beginning to overtake people, so at the end my pace wasn’t perfect.
“But I want to congratulate Mike as he did an amazing job, he didn’t make any mistakes but from our side we recovered the speed that we showed on Friday, so that’s good.”