ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel admits that he is finally “getting used to the car more” after taking his first podium finish in his new TC1 Chevrolet Cruze in the World Touring Car Championship races at the Salzburgring.
Coronel scored his first podium of the season in the opening race, finishing second behind winner Yvan Muller after getting past Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb at the first chicane on the opening lap. Coronel then got past José María López for second on lap eight when the Argentine driver went straight on at the first chicane.
The 42-year-old Dutchman put his performances down to the fact that he is getting more used to his front-wheel drive Chevrolet after five meetings so far in 2014.
“I am getting used to the car more and more,” said Coronel. “Now, I am regularly in the top five or six and I have a good feeling. This is a fast track and it was clear to me that I could keep up with the others. Especially when you have a good slipstream, you can make up several tenths of a second here.”
“We now have a good set-up for the car, which also explains why I was able to make it into Q3 for the first time. In hindsight, I perhaps should have pushed a little but more, but I was also quite happy with the result.”
Coronel added that in the second race of the day he was unable to contain the flying López, who scored his third win of the season with a charge from seventh on the grid.
“This second result was just great and it also shows that we really are working into the right way,” added Coronel. “Moreover, the car remains really consistent.
“I moved up from eighth to fifth. López soon overtook me – he really was way too fast. I tried to stay in his slipstream, but I had no chance. The race was re-started after a big crash, in which I fortunately was not involved. Later in the race, I also overtook Bennani and had a hard fight with Morbidelli.”
The results move Coronel up to seventh overall in the driver’s championship, above Tom Chilton, Norbert Michelisz and Hugo Valente. The ROAL Motorsport driver believes that there is still some small room for improvement with his new car.
“Once again, I managed to finish as the best-placed Chevrolet and I reckon that we are now at 95 percent,” admitted Coronel. “There is still room for improvement, which is good, because we are racing at Spa-Francorchamps after Moscow. That is my home circuit and I want to do well there!”