With just an eighth place finish to take away from the weekend, Tom Coronel says he “expected more” from the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Coronel was forced to miss the official Nordschleife test session two weeks in advance of the main event as a result of accident damage sustained in the previous event in Morocco, and the Dutchman admits that he believes this left him on the back foot throughout the weekend.
“The disadvantage because of that was bigger than we had expected, because we were really playing catch-up in terms of set-up throughout the weekend,” explained the ROAL Motorsport driver. “The test on Thursday was held in the dry. For first free practice on Friday, the track was wet and we were doing pretty well as we were somewhere between fourth and sixth place all the time. In second free practice, however, when it was dry again, things didn’t go at all.”
Stymied by an engine change penalty that would send him to the back of the grid for the first race, Coronel decided to focus on the second race, where he would start from the front row of the grid in second, after posting the ninth best time in qualifying.
“As every so often, we decided to concentrate on the second race,” said Coronel. “In qualifying, I did three runs and I ended up ninth, a result that made me quite happy, because it put me onto the front row of the grid for the second race.”
Coronel was hit by a rival in race one, which meant he returned to the pits to check the damage and abandon the race. Having then completed a single reconnaissance lap of the Nordschleife, Coronel turned his attention to race two.
“In the first race, I had a poor start and in the first corner, I got hit by another driver. The impact wasn’t heavy, but I still decided to turn into the pits to avoid any unnecessary risks, so that I would at least be able to compete in race two.
“In race two, I had a good start, but the Citroëns and the works Hondas were visibly faster. On the first lap, I headed out onto the Nordschleife in fourth place and I managed to hold on to my position for a while, but on the long straight at the end of the lap, the drivers in the works cars overtook me one after another without any problems. There was just nothing I could do.
“In any case, I still was the best-placed Chevrolet driver in eighth position. That made me slightly happy, but all in all, I have to say that I had expected more from this weekend.”
After the end of race two, Coronel then turned his attention to competing the Nürburgring 24-Hour race, at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 for Zakspeed. Unfortunately for Coronel, the race was over before he took to the wheel when team-mate Christian Vietoris picked up irreparable damage to the car’s steering.
Watch: Tom Coronel race highlights from the Nürburgring Nordschleife: