Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young was pleased to score his second win of the TCR Europe season in the opening race in Barcelona, after holding off Tom Coronel in a lights-to-flag victory.
Young had earlier put his Honda on pole position by a comfortable four tenths of a second around the Catalan circuit.
The Northern Irishman never really came under pressure from Coronel’s Audi, but he managed the gap and eventually won by just under a second.
Despite that, Young said he felt pressure from Coronel, who was always within less than a second of the lead.
“It was a good race – Tom was on me the whole way,” said Young. “At the start, it looked like he was going to get me, and then I just kept off the kerbs and tried to save my tyres, and in the end, he cooked his.
“It was a very, very tough race; it was very draining as well in the heat.”
Young was pleased to get his second win of the season, elevating him up to seventh in the drivers’ championship standings.
However, he expects progress from tenth on the grid in Sunday’s second race to be much harder.
“That’s two wins this year, so we’ve definitely hit our mark. Last time out in Monza and now here we’ve shown our true pace, so let’s see what we can do [in race two].
“I think it’s going to be a different race as when you’re in the pack the car doesn’t perform as well, so I think Tom and I could struggle tomorrow. But we’ll try and work our way through.”