Julien Briché says he has had a ‘fresh new start’ after claiming victory in the opening TCR Europe race at Monza, moving the Frenchman up to 12th in the drivers’ championship standings.
Briché had qualified his Peugeot in fourth but a poor start allowed the Honda of Pepe Oriola to get in front at the first chicane.
Despite that, the JSB Compétition driver was up to second halfway around the lap, having powered back past Oriola exiting the chicane, when Jimmy Clairet and Mehdi Bennani made contact ahead.
Briché then moved into the lead at the first chicane on the second lap with a controlled pass on Dan Lloyd, and gradually pulled away from Lloyd’s Honda thereafter.
The Frenchman was relieved to score his first win of the year, at a circuit which has been a happy hunting ground for the Peugeots in recent years.
“It was a perfect race, with a not a very good depart from the second row of the grid,” said Briché. “But thanks to the incident between Bennani and Clairet I managed to take second behind Lloyd.
“The car was great and delivered the performance we expected. This is a fresh new start from us after two disappointing events at Le Castellet and Zolder.
“We really needed this victory to regain confidence in our potential.”
Despite being 116 points behind series leader Lloyd, Briché is still thinking about a possible title challenge ahead of Sunday’s reverse-grid second race, where he will start from seventh on the grid.
“Now I hope we can continue this way, starting from tomorrow’s race two, with the same performance and collecting more points, because otherwise for us the rest of the championship will be difficult.”