World Touring Car Championship rookie Esteban Guerrieri has said that he would be keen to explore the opportunity for further outings in the series in the future, calling it ‘the best touring car championship in the world’.
Guerrieri made his début at the wheel of a Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 being run by Campos Racing. The 31-year-old Argentine immediately impressed, going fastest in both of Saturday’s practice sessions, benefitting somewhat from a lack of compensation weight and new tyres.
Such was Guerrieri’s pace on Saturday that he almost took a shock début pole position, but for a slight misdemeanour exiting the pit lane that saw his time disallowed.
Whilst his Opening Race was curtailed by suspension damage on his car, Guerrieri then went on to finish in a commendable sixth in the Main Race, underlining his potential.
“For the races it wasn’t the best day because we had a few problems with the clutch in the first race so I had a bad start,” explained Guerrieri. “We had a touch with a [Honda] Civic and it broke my upright so I had to stop.”
Even though he picked up a solid points finish on his début, Guerrieri wasn’t completely happy with his performance in the Main Race.
“In race two again we had no clutch so I made another [bad] start, which wasn’t ideal. But I made some positions back; I got into a rhythm that wasn’t the best because I started to have problems with the braking.
“It wasn’t the best place but to finish the race in this place is good for all the guys after all the effort, it’s cool and I’m happy with this. Thanks to everybody.”
Whilst the deal was put together with the assistance of Eurosport Events, Guerrieri admits that he would like to explore the opportunity of further outings in the championship in the future.
“I am really happy for all the things that happened to me this weekend, more than what I expected,” continued Guerrieri. “It was great; it was a very good team at Campos and it felt like a family straight away. It was good to work together. To everybody in the WTCC I felt really comfortable and thanks for all that help.
“Now the weekend has finished I would say I love the WTCC. I was focused on doing my best this weekend. It’s definitely a category that’s nice, it’s a world championship and this weekend I tested myself against a very good level of drivers, good guys driving out there and good teams as well.
“It’s the best touring car championship in the world and if there is a chance I would be very keen to analyse it and go forward.”