Sami Taoufik said he’d ‘kind of lost hope’ at the start of the second TCR Europe race in Barcelona but praised teammate Mehdi Bennani as the pair moved back up the field throughout the race.
Taoufik went one better in Sunday’s race after taking third in race one on Saturday, securing a runners-up spot behind winner Andreas Bäckman. The Moroccan had to overtake both former WTCC driver Bennani and Saturday rival Pepe Oriola on his way to the podium.
“We had a rough start,” he explained. “I think I was down to P7 so I kind of lost hope, but the tyres started to come in and thanks to my teammate Mehdi we started to pull through and overtake positions together.
“In the last couple of laps, Filippi went into the pits and so I finally managed to pull off the move on Pepe that I couldn’t quite do yesterday, so I got my revenge!”
Oriola’s second race at his home event quickly went downhill in the later stages as he was gradually caught by several drivers behind after struggling with what appeared to be tyre degradation issues before ending the race in 14th.
Taoufik added on his rival’s woes: “Tyre management is a big problem in this type of car, so his plan for the race was very different to my plan and mine looks to have turned out better.”
The ComToYou Racing driver had also been the fastest driver in both of Friday’s free practice sessions and was adamant that he and his more experienced teammate Bennani will continue to fight together on track throughout the rest of the season.
“I’m sure we’ll have a few more battles between now and the end of the season and hopefully we can both score points.”
Rounds nine and ten of the 2020 TCR Europe series take place at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps between October 22-24.