Tom Coronel had been eagerly looking forward to the TCR Europe Touring Car Series season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet in the south of France, but for the Dutchman, the race weekend in the Var region didn’t bring what he had expected. With his Honda Civic Type R, run by Belgian team Boutsen Ginion Racing and sporting the familiar yellow-and-red DHL livery, Coronel retired from both races. In the first race, a loose bonnet pin was the reason for his retirement. In the second race, Coronel made an excellent start, but was his by an opponent on the opening lap and incurred a right rear puncture as a result. « Very disappointing and by no means what I had expected, of course, » Coronel said. « But let’s not dwell too long on this and look ahead to the upcoming races instead! »
For Coronel, the build-up to the races already wasn’t ideal. « We had some issues with the brakes: the pedal was soft, so that I had to push again every time. That wasn’t ideal. Eventually, I qualified 14th, not what I had expected, » the driver commented. « In the race, the problem was still there and after that, the pin to fix the bonnet came up. I hadn’t hit anything, the pin came up just like that in a corner. Never had anything like that before! It impedes your top speed and it was dangerous because of the risk that the bonnet could open and hit the windscreen, so I had to head into the pits. That was too bad, because I was in a group with some nice fights for eighth to 14th place going on. There were some issues with the water and oil temperature getting too high as well, so that was another thing we tried to cure. »
The second race didn’t last very long either. « I had a super start: I made up five places right away, but then Oriola came up and hit my right rear wheel in turn 5. That resulted into a puncture, so I had to get straight back to the pits and that was it. Now, I just go home and look ahead to the next race! » For Coronel, that will be the FIA WTCR season opener at the Salzburgring in Austria, 12th and 13th September. His next races with the Boutsen Ginion Racing Honda Civic Type R TCR in TCR Europe will be on 23rd and 24th October in the team’s home round at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps.
Result race 1:
1. Daniel Lloyd (GBr), Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR, 10 laps in 22:36.607 (avg. 154.4 km/h)
2. Mehdi Bennani (Mor), Audi RS 3 LMS, +0.406
3. John Filippi (Fra), Hyundai i30 N TCR, +1.607
– Tom Coronel (Ned), Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR
Result race 2:
1. Mike Halder (Ger), Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR, 10 laps in 22:26.162 (avg. 155.6 km/h)
2. Néstor Girolami (Arg), Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR, +1.958
3. Teddy Clairet (Fra), Peugeot 308 TCR, +11.222
– Tom Coronel (Ned), Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR
Standings after 2 races: 1. Daniel Lloyd, 69 points ; 2. Mehdi Bennani, 68 pts ; 3. Néstor Girolami, 66 pts…
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