Tambay crowned despite tag from Blomqvist
Cupra driver Adrien Tambay was crowned King of the Weekend as the FIA ETCR etouring Car World Cup took in its second round at the Hungaroring.
Tambay withstood pressure from the rival Hyundai and Romeo Ferraris squads but the biggest threat was from team-mate Tom Blomqvist in Saturday’s quarter-final, where Blomqvist misjudged his braking to spin Tambay, and put himself out of the race, denying Tambay the top spot in that heat.
Tambay’s team-mate Mattias Ekstrom displayed the expected pace following his season-opening domination – in qualifying he was more than a second faster than Tambay. He fell victim to poor starts, but was still the secondhighest scoring driver.
“We had better pace than to finish where we did. But then again if you have two bad starts, you have to be happy with 80 points,” said the two-time
DTM and reigning ETCR champion.
Romero Ferraris’ Maxime Martin was the strongest non-cupra driver with a win in his superfinal heat a silver lining after poor qualifying. “We came back in every heat until winning the final so that’s a victory for the team after a lot of hard work,” said Martin, who now sits sixth in the points.
For Tambay the weekend victory differed from Ekstrom’s domination in Pau. The Frenchman was fastest in his qualifying group, took second to Bruno Spengler (Romero Ferraris) in his quarter-final following the contact with Blomqvist, then was last in his semi-final thanks to a mapping issue with his Cupra. That made victory in his superfinal all the sweeter.
“I had to make ground for my mistakes from Saturday’s and Sunday morning’s starts and I put pressure on myself,” he said. “I knew the car was really quick around the Hungaroring, but I also knew I had to have a trouble-free race. I had to overtake Bruno and did so after two corners. That was plan A, and it worked.”
Tambay leads Ekstrom by two points, with the series back in action at Madrid’s Jarama circuit this weekend.