Kevin Ceccon praised Aurélien Comte for an ‘aggressive but fair’ fight for the lead in the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race in Japan, which saw the Alfa Romeo driver claim his first win in the series.
Ceccon started on the front row of the grid alongside the Peugeot driver, and followed the Frenchman around for the first lap after both drivers made good starts.
The Team Mulsanne driver then made his move for the lead at the fast 130R corner on lap two, before going on to take a first win for driver, team and manufacturer.
It marked an impressive change in fortunes for Ceccon and the small team, who had never previously had a pole or a win before arriving at Suzuka.
“I think we are quite quick in Japan,” said Ceccon. “It has been a great race; I started from second position and I kept it in the first lap, but then I started to fight with Comte.
“It was a good fight – a fair one and we were a bit aggressive, but it is like this in touring cars – and I was able to overtake him.
“There were so many safety cars, so every time my lead was in trouble again, but we kept the position.”
Ceccon is now turning his focus to Sunday’s two races, where he will start from pole position in race three after securing the outright pole. First he has to contend with race two, where he will start from tenth on the reversed grid.
“As I said yesterday, it’s an amazing weekend for me, the team and for Alfa Romeo and for everyone so we just need to keep going for tomorrow.
“Tomorrow we have race two, but as I said yesterday I will start P10 but in race three nobody will start in front of me, so we will try to do it again!”
Ceccon also comfortably posted the fastest lap of the race, whilst his team-mate Luigi Ferrara posted the fastest top speed in the speed traps, demonstrating the outright pace of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.