Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Niels Langeveld admitted the championship “is far from over” after taking his first podium finish of the season at the second race at Zandvoort.
Langeveld, who is now sixth in the Drivers Standings and 30 points behind series leader Franco Girolami, couldn’t match the pace of his Argentinean rival in race two of the weekend and revealed it was hard to take not being able to take the win.
“To be honest, when you cross the finish line the first thing you think of is that it’s a disappointment,” explained Langeveld after claiming second place.
“If I was eager to win one race it was this one. Yesterday we had to pace ourselves to win today.
“The Honda was faster, it was unstoppable, plus I had an issue with my brakes.
“In the end, this was my first podium of the season after finishing P4 three times and two DNFs; then you have to be happy. The championship is my goal and it’s far from over.”
The Italian driver also went on to discuss his plan for the next round of the season at Spa and how if things had turned out differently, he might have been leading the championship as the series heads to Belgium next month.
“I go light to Spa and that’s really important and we have to strike for the win there,” said Langeveld.
“If you look at my results, one time I got pushed out by (Dušan) Borkovič and the other was an opportunistic move by (Jack) Young – both times I ended up kicked out of the race.
“If that hadn’t happened, I would be leading the Championship. The race pace is there and the team is doing a good job.”
Langeveld finished the opening race of the weekend in the Netherlands in fourth position about the SLR Hyundai Elantra.