Tom Coronel Got Less Than He Hoped For in World Touring Car Championship
May 07, 2007
Tom Coronel
After improving the setup of his car together with the GR-Asia engineers, SEAT Team Holland driver Tom Coronel was full of confidence to do well in his first home event in the FIA WTCC. The warm up boosted his confidence even further as he was third quickest. Coronel was obviously out to make up for his 15th place on the startgrid. When the 25 cars were released for a rolling start the Dutch driver immediately gained two positions before arriving at the Tarzan corner. On lap 6 he tried another move to gain a position, however the effort ended in tears and Tom had to abandon the race. The second race saw Tom moving up from the back of the grid. During the 12 laps of the race Coronel managed to up to 14th position.
Together with the team Coronel was looking for possibilities to make his SEAT Leon quicker. “We made quite a lot of changes, especially to the suspension of the car. Not just to improve the handling, but also to make the tyres last longer. I used the warm up to do as much laps as possible and the tyrewear was much better now. In the first race I had a good start and I gained two places right away. I was immediately fighting in a group of cars. James Thompson was ahead of me and Jorg Müller was attacking me from the rear. I was watching Thompson to see where I could overtake him. Suddenly he made a small mistake at the back of the circuit. I did not hesitate and I immediately jumped into the gap. We were side by side entering the corner, but he continued to steer in. We touched and he hit my left rear wheel. It broke and the suspension was bent, so it was the end of my race. Fortunately I made it back to the pits so the crew could repair the car well in time for the second race. In fact they just finished their job before the chequered flag of race 1 was dropped”.
