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Tom Chilton hails ‘fantastic’ Opening Race win

Tom Chilton praised his team for work on the set-up of his Citroën in the wet World Touring Car Championship races in Japan, where the Sébastien Loeb Racing driver claimed his second win of the season.

Chilton made the most of the start to pass pole-sitter Kevin Gleason at the first turn, and the Brit then opened up a huge 13-second lead as he excelled in the very wet and tricky conditions.

The winning margin was so comfortable for Chilton that he slots into the WTCC record books having taken the second-largest margin in the history of the championship since 2005.

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The Main Race proved to be a shorter and more challenging affair for the 32-year-old as he suffered a half spin shortly before the red flags flew, dropping him from eighth to tenth where he took just a point home.

“The conditions in the Opening Race were very good compared to the Main Race,” explained Chilton. “The Opening Race was fantastic. We did a couple of tweaks to the car after qualifying and the circuit came to us perfectly, actually.

“I was just saying on the radio to the boys on the way round what a great job we’ve done with the chassis because I was so consistent, I can do the same tenth of a second every single lap because it’s so easy to drive and that’s all credit to the team and the engineer.”

Having won the race by a large margin, Chilton admits that he did think about backing off but opted to keep pushing so he could post the fastest lap of the race and also win a new TAG Heuer watch.

“I have really enjoyed driving the car,” added Chilton. “I kept thinking I should start lifting a bit but then I thought I quite fancied a watch…”

Chilton’s win has also given him a 3.5 point lead in the WTCC Trophy for Independents, where he leads team-mate Mehdi Bennani.

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