Hyundai’s Augusto Farfus says his job was ‘beautifully done’ in the second PURE ETCR event at Aragón, despite the Brazilian having missed out on being the high scorer of the weekend to Mattias Ekström.
Farfus missed out on being crowned the ‘King of the Weekend’ because he had been defeated by CUPRA’s Mikel Azcona in his first battle of the weekend.
Despite then winning all of his remaining battles, including SuperFinal A, Farfus was five points behind event winner Ekström, who had won all of his on-track battles over the weekend.
In the Pool A SuperFinal, Farfus had been aggressively defending his track position from Farfus, with things coming to a head on lap five when contact between the pair pitched Azcona off into the gravel and out of the race, although Farfus received no penalty for the incident.
Despite that and winning his SuperFinal, Farfus admitted it was strange for him to not know the outcome of the event until after SuperFinal B, in which Ekström was competing.
“It’s different [watching SuperFinal B], because my job was done,” said Farfus. “I did what I could and then it was not in my hands anymore.
“I have to say, Mattias drove an excellent race. As he said, we are giving a unique racing style and approach to motorsport fans. I think people still need to learn the concept a little bit, but it’s really nice.
“I did my job – my job was beautifully done – and then I was just waiting to see the outcome of race two. Of course, I had a chance and I was hoping for that, but unfortunately it was also out of my control.
“I’m happy considering how Vallelunga was, when I had a victory in my hands and it just slipped through my fingers, to come back here and score some big points and be back again in the championship. I can’t wait to keep going and keep moving up.”
Farfus’ second in Spain means he has moved up to sixth in the drivers’ standings, although the 37-year-old was keen to point out that he would have been higher if he had not been classified as a retirement in the SuperFinal A of the opening event in Italy.
“Unfortunately, I was P11 in the standings [after the first event] because I could not finish the race in Vallelunga, and as the championship says if you don’t finish then you score zero, otherwise I would have been even further up.
“We keep improving. As Mattias said, there is a constant learning process in this championship; it is a constant discovery of all the tricks and all the areas to improve, and to work on the car.
“We have made a very good step in Aragón, but there is still more to come, and everyone is improving and pushing, so we have to keep our heads down.
“Now we are going to go to a street circuit [in Copenhagen]. No one knows this track – we don’t even know yet about the exact details of the layout, and so on – so there’s going to be even more of a lottery. Let’s see how the weekend will plan out.”