M1RA Racing’s Francisco Mora says he made the overtake on Francisco Abreu at the “right time” in race two of TCR Europe at the Hungaroring to score his first victory.
The Portugese racer had reverse-grid pole, but lost out to the Peugeot 308 of Abreu into turn two on the opening lap.
He told TouringCars.Net that biding his time and making his move at the right point was a key factor in taking the win, as it gave him a gap to manage for the remainder of the race.
“It was a good race,” said Mora. “Difficult in the start especially because he [Abreu] tried to overtake me with a bit of aggression, and so I thought maybe it’s better to go behind him, to study him and to save the tyres a little bit and to run smooth.
“So that’s what I did, and then the race started developing by itself, I was fast, he was fast. The Peugeot was quick in the beginning but then his tyres went away a bit, and I was always pushing and I knew that when I overtook him it was the right time because the guys behind were catching me.
“So I overtook him and gained quite a good gap. Then I was just trying to save that gap until the final six laps that Dániel was faster a little bit. But I tried to keep up the margin and just drove until the end with good pace, the car was very very good.”
Mora also extended his thanks to teammate and local racer Dániel Nagy, who placed second to score a double home podium at the Hungaroring.
“Thank you to the M1RA team, all the people that helped me, my engineers and also for Danny, Danny is a very good teammate,” he said.
“We help each other out so this result is very good for me – obviously my first win. Also for the team it’s a 1-2 so I’m very happy and I hope that I can get more results like this and thank you to my family, my father and all the people that made this possible.”
The race two winner said he was happy with the setup of his Hyundai all weekend, and was eager to capitalise on strong pace at the 2.722 mile circuit.
“The BoP this weekend was OK, finally. After Zandvoort and Spa it was really hard for us but here since Friday we were fast,” said Mora.
“Yesterday in the mixed conditions I was really fast, but I did not finish due to a faulty throttle sensor. But today was really good, I knew we had the pace.
“The setup was very good and consistent – I did almost the same time from the first lap until the end. So the car was really good and I’m very happy.”