It was a frustrating weekend for James Nash in the TCR International Series in Sochi, as the Craft-Bamboo Racing driver both struggled for pace and was on the receiving end of penalties from the Stewards.
Nash would have finished race one in fourth, but for being handed a post-race ten-second penalty for contact with Leopard Racing’s Jean-Karl Vernay half-way through the race.
That dropped the Brit to eighth in the results, crucially costing Nash championship points which would have given him the championship leaving Russia otherwise.
Whilst the SEAT racer was then able to finish fourth in race two, he failed to match the pace of the leading Volkswagen or Honda cars during the weekend.
“[It was] a hugely frustrating day,” said Nash afterwards. “I made good starts in both races but thereafter to be honest it was fairly dull and to cap it all, the stewards later penalised me for what was I thought, a typical touring car racing incident.
“A win today was unfortunately beyond us and while a podium would have been nice, realistically it was only going to happen because of someone else’s misfortune.”
As a result, Nash leaves Sochi trailing new championship leader Stefano Comini by seven points, with team-mate Pepe Oriola also six points ahead of the Brit, who is now third in the standings.
With the Volkswagen racers in particular handed a concession at the weekend, allowing the Golfs to run 10 mm lower, Nash believes there was little chance of challenging at the very front of the field.
“Before we arrived at Sochi we had thought that the circuit might offer us an advantage but from as early as free practice one I knew we were in trouble.
“There was nothing this weekend that we could have done about the Hondas and the VW’s were quicker or at least as quick as us everywhere.
“How much of that is down to others making a real gain on us, or from weight or performance breaks from the organisers I don’t know.
“What I do know though is that we have got some serious development work to do before the next event so I’m glad that with the eight-week break just starting, we’ve now got the time to do it.
“It’s been a frustrating day for all concerned but be assured we’ll bounce back.”