Dániel Nagy says his maiden podium finish in World Touring Cars is an ‘amazing’ feeling after the Hungarian finished second in the second FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at the Hungaroring.
Nagy, who was a wildcard entry with M1RA for the Hungarian round only, followed Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Rob Huff home to score a first podium in WTCR, after a year and a half of trying previously with Zengő Motorsport in the WTCC.
“I came here without any big results in the world of touring cars, and I was about to show that I can be as fast as the world champions,” said the Hyundai racer to TouringCars.Net. “To be honest I was hoping for a top ten result in maybe one race before the race weekend, but then I was able to step up on the podium with a second place.
“I was able to finish ahead of Yvan Muller, who had the same car with 20 kg less [weight] than me, and I was able to be faster than him and attack for first place. It’s still hard to believe that, but I think the team and I really deserved the success that we had this weekend.”
Nagy believes that he learned a lot from the pressure of racing in front of his home crowd in 2017, and the 20-year-old was able to build upon that in the trio of races at the weekend.
“Last year I didn’t handle [the pressure] so good, but I learned from it, and this year I was really looking and concentrating on just the positive things. It gave me a lot of motivation.
“In the last four laps of race one I lost a little bit of concentration and then I got motivation when I looked to the left as I crossed the start-finish line to see how many people were cheering me to stay on the podium. I thought to myself ‘why am I here’ and fortunately I managed to do it!”
Nagy’s focus now turns to the TCR Europe series, which kicks off at Circuit Paul Ricard next weekend. The Hungarian believes that he can now be a title contender there, following a successful weekend in WTCR.
“I need to spend some days to really realise what happened to me this weekend, because this is an amazingly big step compared to my last two years.
“I have to believe it, I have to think about it and then try to save that confidence that I have gained this weekend for TCR Europe. It seems like we can be championship contenders.”