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Tom Coronel moves up in the standings after Hungarian races

The big question during the fourth season round of the 2013 FIA WTCC at the Hungaroring was whether Tom Coronel would be able to repeat his victory from the previous race at the Slovakia Ring. At the circuit near Budapest, the 41-year old Dutch driver claimed a fifth and a sixth starting grid position in qualifying. Both races ended with sixth place for him. The ROAL Motorsport-run BMW 320 TC still lacked a little bit of top speed on the straight, but apart from that showed a strong performance at the almost 4.4 kilometres long circuit. With these results, Tom Coronel added world championship points to his tally and moved up to sixth place with 64 points. Thus, he still is the best-scoring BMW driver in the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

"I really enjoyed the races," an enthusiastic Tom Coronel starts his report. "In free practice, we were on the pace and first qualifying went well, too. We knew where we are: fourth and sixth place is absolutely feasible. After first qualifying, however, I had to come in for scrutineering and thus missed out on the start of top 12 qualifying. It was fortunate that Gabriele Tarquini came back into the pits and that I could follow him. Thus, I had a good tow at the last moment and made it to sixth place. After the start of the first race, it was quite hectic. I made it through the first corner and before the second corner, I got hit by Nash at the left rear. Due to that, I hit Tiago Monteiro, something I couldn't do anything about. But I lost two places as a result and had to battle with Bennani, Tom Chilton and Rob Huff to make it back to sixth. I really enjoyed the racing, had a lot of battles and the car handled very consistently. At the end of the straight, we are still lacking some top speed. By driving a defensive line and with the good handling of the BMW in the middle part of the track, I was able to keep up with the others. The second race went well, too. In the beginning, there was Tarquini's crash, after which we drove behind the safety car. After a few laps, the race continued and I had plenty of work with the Chevrolets of Muller and Chilton. I did everything I could, but I couldn't keep Muller at bay. Chilton also found a way past, but I could overtake him again after he had made a mistake. Sixth in the race, which was won by Rob Huff. Huffy, the driver with whom I had such a big battle in the first race. Thus, it becomes clear that we can compete, in spite of the lack of top speed at the end of the main straight. However, I am at the limit and that is all there is, but a trophy here would have been nice," Tom Coronel says.

A video of Tom Coronel during the fourth race weekend of the 2013 FIA WTCC can be seen at: http://youtu.be/pMLS3TUA-n8

Result race 1: 1.Yvan Muller (Chevrolet Cruze) 12 laps in 23:17.125; 2. Norbert Michelisz +0.617; 3. Gabriele Tarquini (both Honda Civic WTCC) +12.670; 4. Rob Huff (SEAT Leon WTCC) +13.573; 5. Mehdi Bennani (BMW 320 TC) +13.861; 6. Tom Coronel (ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC) +14.133.

Result race 2: 1.Rob Huff (SEAT Leon WTCC) 14 laps in 29:35.871; 2. Mehdi Bennani (BMW 320 TC) +0.426; 3. Alex MacDowall +4.043 ; 4. James Nash +4.465; 5. Yvan Muller (all Chevrolet Cruze) +4.783 and 6. Tom Coronel (ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC) +5.490.

2013 FIA WTCC 2013 Calendar:
Austria May 18-19
Russia June 08-09
Portugal June 29-30
Brazil July 27-28
USA September 07-08
Japan September 21-22
China November 02-03
Macau November 15-17