Teddy Clairet said he ‘tried but it wasn’t enough’ after almost holding off Mat’o Homola in race two of the TCR Europe series at Spa-Francorchamps.
Clairet, driving the Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308, had for the majority of the second race of the weekend held his position after Mikel Azcona got past him for the race lead early on, however he couldn’t stop rival Homola from also getting past on the last lap of the race.
“It’s always difficult when it begins to rain when you are on the starting grid. We made what I thought was a good tyre choice,” said Clairet after the end of the race.
“Mikel was a bit faster than me and so I didn’t want to fight too much with him because I didn’t want to lose too much time.
“In the end, it was impossible to hold Mat’o who was on slicks; I tried but it was not enough. Still, I’m happy to finish third.
“It’s another podium and in this kind of race, anything can happen. It’s good to take the points and finish on the podium, so I’m happy with that.”
Race two on Saturday morning saw the field have to make a sudden tyre decision due to the rain that fell in the build up to the race, and Clairet admitted that it was a race where anything could have happened.
Clairet and Azcona both chose to have a mixed combination of wet and slick tyres, while pole sitter Klim Gavrilov opted to start the race on full wets – something that he would soon regret after being forced to pit for slicks in the early stages of the race.
“When I saw Gavrilov was on rain tyres and on the first laps when we were behind the safety car, I knew it would be difficult for him because most of the circuit was dry, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw him go into the pits,” explained Clairet.
“I was a bit worried that my tyres would be okay, but everyone around me was the same, so I said to myself ‘we will see where we are at the end’ and it was okay.”
The result means Clairet now moves to 13th in the Drivers Standings, just one point behind Brutal Fish Racing’s Jack Young.