After the big accident in this year’s WTCC opening round in Marrakech, Tom Coronel and his ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze were back on track in today’s test session.
Despite the team’s initial pessimistic outlook, which spoke about shaking down the car only in Saturday’s qualifying, they managed to get it ready it in time for testing.
The Dutchman had been forced to miss the previous race weekend in France while the car was being rebuilt.
“The guys have been working for weeks non-stop, until late last night and all through the morning,” Coronel said. “But we’re here, and that’s what matters. So far this year it has been a race against time; first to get the car ready for the start of the season, then to get it rebuilt for this weekend. All that was left intact after the accident was my seat and the steering wheel; everything else had to be replaced, repaired or rebuilt. I’ve been racing for 25 years now, but I’ve never before experienced a start of the season like this. In fact, my season really only starts this weekend, because so far I have barely driven the Chevrolet in anger. I did a 70-lap shake down, some laps in practice and qualifying in Marrakech, then an easy first race to save the car for the second race [where he started from pole position] but which lasted about 500 metres. So from this weekend onwards, I’ll be really racing.”