Tom Coronel believes that he found luck in Macau by taking a podium in the opening World Touring Car Championship race, having won the previous night in one of the territory’s casinos.
The ROAL Motorsport driver followed Mehdi Bennani’s Citroën home to finish in second and secure his first podium of the season, and also the Dutchman’s first Macau podium since 2013.
Coronel believes that he found luck overnight, and explained his beliefs about why he was able to bring home such a strong result.
“At this circuit I was leading in Formula 3 and I crashed out with two laps to go,” explained Coronel. “I was leading the touring car race in 2001 with two laps to go or something like that and I crashed out.
“Somehow I’ve never found the luck but last night I was in Sands [casino]. I put on number nine [my race number]. My friends were all outside and they said ‘where were you?’ I said I won. They said ‘don’t change the coins, keep them’ so they are still in my pocket – I think I found some luck here.”
Coronel started in second and managed to hold off the Honda of Ryo Michigami through the fast first two corners of the lap to settle into the position, where he would ultimately finish when the race was red-flagged early due to a crash for Honda’s Norbert Michelisz.
“I had a very good start and saw that Michigami was very strong in Mandarin, which I knew directly. I knew in the mountain section I really had to push and there I was really on the limit everywhere for myself because this was my only chance.
“Then in the countdown my team engineer said it was four laps to go but I had the feeling it had just started, one lap [to go]. But I was happy.
“These are the results I need, especially at the end of the season and with the Chevrolet. It’s the oldest piece of metal we see here on track.
“We saw in the last few races we couldn’t do anything with the car anymore and somehow we found the speed in the mountain section so I’m really happy.”
WATCH: Tom Coronel’s Opening Race highlights