Dan Lloyd was ‘happier than if he had secured a win’ after claiming second in the opening TCR Europe race at Monza, with the Brutal Fish Racing driver extending his championship lead to 51 points over Mike Halder.
Lloyd took the lead initially at the start of the race, passing pole-sitter Mehdi Bennani into the first chicane, with the Brit leading for the opening lap.
However, Lloyd was passed by the resurgent Briché at the first chicane on the second lap, as his title rivals started to bite the dust behind him.
In the end a happy Lloyd settled for second after developing a vibration in his car, making the Honda driver nervous of a puncture.
Lloyd has moved into a comfortable series lead after rivals Mike Halder and Mehdi Bennani crashed out of the race.
“I’m more than happy, to be honest, I’m happier than a win,” said Lloyd to TouringCars.Net. “Obviously, it’s a great position for the championship.
“The Peugeots are incredibly quick here, just like they were in Monza the last round last year.
“To be honest, I had a lot of oversteer in the first two or three laps, so I worked with Julien and I sat behind him.
“I felt like I had the pace on him, I was just sat there keeping the tyres and brakes cool. But then five laps from the end I started getting quite a nasty vibration from the front-left, and then I heard Mike and Bennani were out.
“I suffered here last year with a puncture in race one, and at that time I said I’m really happy with second, I’ve got a big gap, so I drove around all the kerbs and just brought the car home.”
Lloyd thinks that if it wasn’t for his fear of a puncture he could have taken the fight to Briché for the win.
“It’s a shame because I really think it would have been a good fight at the end. If I could have just sat in his tow, looked after the tyres then I think I could have given it a good go.”