ComtoYou Racing’s Tom Coronel admitted he hoped that Franco Girolami and Mikel Azcona would “be even more aggressive” as he followed the pair during the later stages of the opening TCR Europe race at Monza.
Coronel ended race one of the weekend in third place behind the two championship contenders after getting the better of teammate Dušan Borković and by the end of the race was also close to the leading pair ahead of him.
With the top two going on to make contact, third place Coronel explained after the end of the race that he hoped the pair would trip over themselves and enable him to finish in an even stronger position.
“In the final laps I saw the two guys in front of me fighting. It like having a VIP seat for a show!,” explained Coronel.
“They delivered a mega-cool racing! I imagined the people watching on TV going crazy, but I had the best view. I saw them touching and pushing and wished for a flat tyre of something else… Come on boys, I cried, be even more aggressive!
“And I hoped until the last corner when they touched again. But eventually they deserved it, because I enjoyed watching two championship contenders fighting the way they did, and I did the best that was possible to do with the Audi today.”
Coronel ended the race as the highest placed Audi in the field and went on to explain that he was also involved in some early race battles with several drivers behind him.
“My start wasn’t brilliant and in the first chicane I had some small contacts,” added the Dutch driver.
“After that I had a fight with my teammate Borković and had to work hard to overtake him because he was driving like crazy, but it’s ok, it was fun.
“Then I saw Mikel behind me, we had a little fight in the corners, but I saw he had much more speed than me and let him pass.”
Coronel now sits fifth in the Drivers Standings, five points behind Mehdi Bennani.