James Nash was full of praise for his Craft-Bamboo Racing team, after he secured his first podium of the TCR International Series season in Bahrain with second in race two.
Having started the reversed-grid race in fourth, Nash passed Hungarian duo Ferenc Ficza and Attila Tassi by the end of the opening lap, leaving him in pursuit of race leader Dušan Borković.
In the end the Brit was unable to mount a challenge for victory, but leaves the F1-supporting event in positive spirits after moving up to eighth in the drivers’ championship standings.
“I’m very happy to be properly back in the points this weekend and to have a second-place podium in race two was fantastic for my championship,” said Nash. “I couldn’t catch Dušan so it was all about making sure that my second place was secure.
“We were all making mistakes and it was all about who made the fewest. The temperatures were really high and the tyres were struggling; it was really easy to snatch a wheel and miss an apex.
“I started to make mistakes over the last few laps and Hugo [Valente, team-mate] was catching me, but thankfully he also made some errors and created a gap for me.
“It was a tough weekend thanks to the high temperatures but the team did a brilliant job to ensure we had a competitive car and I can’t wait to get to Spa to continue the fight.”
Craft-Bamboo Racing CEO Richard Coleman added that he believes something needs to be done about the Balance of Performance [BoP] situation, which he doesn’t feel is allowing his SEAT cars to reach their full potential.
“It is very rare that I speak about BoP but there are certainly some issues that need to be resolved,” added Coleman. “I trust in the organizers to deal with this before the next race.”
Nash’s podium was his 12th overall in the TCR International Series.