James Nash’s second win harder fought than the first

James Nash battled back from a troubling pair of practice sessions to emerge as the race two winner in Porto on his first visit to the Portuguese street track this weekend.

The 26-year-old was 24th fastest in the first practice session on Saturday and 17th in FP2, but turned that around in qualifying by first breaking into Q2 with a last minute flyer and then setting the tenth fastest time which resulted in the pole position for the reversed grid race.

Though Nash lost ground at the start in race one and finished just outside of the points in 11th place, the British driver was able to make the most of his race two pole, fighting off the two Münnich Motorsport SEATs of Marc Basseng and Rob Huff to lead into Turn 1 and go on to take what was a dominant victory as Huff struggled with braking issues throughout the rest of the race.

“It’s incredible. It’s even nicer than Austria probably,” said Nash to TouringCarTimes.

“I felt I earned that one a bit more and worked harder for it. Considering we’ve not driven this track and everything was against us, I was 24st in free practice 1 and the first achievement was to actually get it into Q2, and I was really pleased with that. We had a bit of luck with the reversed grid, but that’s what you need in the Championship.

“Getting off the line in the Chevrolet is no easy thing and to keep (Marc) Basseng behind me and then Rob. I felt I started to pull out a bit of gap on Rob on the first three laps. It was nice to actually drive and relax and feel a rhythm rather than fighting.”

James Nash now moves up to third in the overall drivers’ championship, 22 points behind Michel Nykjaer. Nash also trails Nykjaer in the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy by four points after Portugal, heading to the final five races of the season.

Yokohama Trophy Drivers’ Standings