Dan Lloyd was pleased to end the TCR Europe season with a podium finish in race two at Monza, at a circuit which the Brutal Fish Racing Honda driver said was their ‘weakest of the season’.
Lloyd started the race in fifth and was up to fourth by the end of the opening lap. The Honda driver then passed Maxime Potty and Gilles Magnus for second a lap later, where he held station for the mid-phase of the race behind eventual winner Josh Files.
But Lloyd was unable to keep the charging Peugeot of Julien Briché at bay, as the Frenchman sought to take the title fight to the last corner with Files.
Lloyd admitted that he didn’t intend to make life too hard for Briché, given the pace the Peugeot 308 driver has shown throughout the weekend.
“It was clear the Peugeots and the Hyundais had the ultimate pace this weekend, they were the two cars [to have],” said Lloyd to TouringCars.Net. “Yesterday I really got caught out by trying to hold a car behind for too long.
“I could see Julien was so, so quick on the straight. I knew if I started defending with five or six laps to go everyone else would have caught up, so to be honest I decided to let him go and hopefully go with him to catch Josh, but they were too quick.
“I’m really pleased with the pace – I kept Josh honest at the start of the race and I tried as hard as I could. Even in the slipstream it was tough to catch him in a straight line.
“I’m really pleased with how I drove after a tough weekend in all to finish on the podium is a great result.”
Lloyd also praised the Slovakian Brutal Fish Racing team, which had expanded to four cars this weekend and for whom he delivered a fourth podium finish of the season.
“I’m not complaining, we’ve been strong consistently at all the other circuits. Considering this is our weakest and we’re standing on the podium behind number one and two in the championship it’s pretty cool.
“Big hats off to the Brutal Fish team, it’s our first season and we haven’t had any testing. We haven’t got all the team-mates for the data. I’m kind of on my own, so I think it’s credit to myself, the team, the Honda car and I think it’s an amazing job.”