Tom Chilton ecstatic with Hungaroring double-podium as he takes indies lead
Tom Chillton has blasted into the lead of the WTCC independent drivers’ standings after a strong weekend in Hungary, with the 32-year-old finishing on the podium in both of Sunday’s races despite problematic qualifying.
The Sébastien Loeb Racing driver finished second in Race 1, harrying eventual race winner Tiago Monteiro’s Honda throughout, and then went from seventh to third in Race 2.
“The slowest person I followed all weekend was probably Tiago Monteiro,” said Chilton to TouringCarTimes. “But you just can’t overtake around here. It’s all down to the start and the first three corners. I did set my car up to be a little bit loose to be good at the end of the race, and judging by the Hondas, they set theirs up to be better at the beginning.”
After a problematic qualifying, Chilton was happy to have bounced back, with SLR having a very strong Sunday with team-mate Mehdi Bennani taking the main race victory.
“I have a big, big smile on my face considering how we misjudged the grip on the circuit for qualifying on my car,” he said. “I was a little bit frustrated, so I managed to go back to the hotel, completely relax and forget about everything, come back with a fresh head, and I went from fourth to second in Race 1 and seventh to third in Race 2 and it doesn’t get much better than that.”
After a mixed first two race weekends, Chilton’s Hungary weekend was has strongest yet, and moved him up to third in the overall driver’s standings, and into the lead of the independents’ classification.
“I feel I was very unlucky with my gearbox failure in Race 2 at Monza, and with the data engineer’s laptop crashing on the grid at Marrakech which caused me to stall,” he said. “I believe in karma and it’s good to get something back.”
