Yvan Muller happy with important points scoring weekend

Citroën Total WTCC’s Yvan Muller has scored the most points in each of the last two race weekends, and has closed the gap to Argentinian team-mate José María López to just ten points going to Slovakia with his second win of 2014.

Yvan Muller was the strongest through qualifying and the first race, holding a safe distance to López, and after a good start in race two found himself the top placed of the three Citroën drivers from tenth on the grid, although he was unable to do anything about Tom Coronel’s Chevrolet ahead of him despite a race long fight, crossing the line in fifth place at the end of the race, ending Citroën’s run of victories in 2014.

“After the disappointing weekend for me in Marrakech it was important for me to come back (in the points), I’ve reduced the difference in points between José and myself further, that’s the most important thing so I’m happy with this weekend,” said Muller to TouringCarTimes.

Muller admits the difficult start in Marrakech was partly down to the off-season focus of the drivers, but after this weekend where he was the strongest of the Citroën drivers in both qualifying and the races, he believes his performance is back to where he feels it should be.

“During the winter I was very focussed on the development of the car as I was the one with the most experience, whereas the other two drivers were more focussed on their driving to learn the car and the Championship, but the problem is this year’s car is very different to last year’s car and I was not focussed enough on my driving style, but now I’m starting to drive more how I should be,” he said.

After a weekend where Honda have closed the gap to Citroën, and were able to challenge the French manufacturer in qualifying, and with the Chevrolet of Tom Coronel able to hold of Muller, and the Honda of Tarquini able to defend against Sébastien Loeb throughout the second race, the four-time champion believes it’s too early to worry about changing their approach now that the other teams are closer with the application of compensation weight.

“At the moment there’s nothing to change. We’ve only done one weekend with the weight penalty, and we have to see how it is at the next race, and then probably the one after that, as the Slovakiaring is the same kind of circuit as here,” remarked Muller. “But then after that there is Salzburg, which will be different and I think that will suit us more, so we’ll see then.”