André Couto misses out on Ningbo victory after belts come off

André Couto looked set for race victory on his China Touring Car Championship debut on Sunday as he closed in on the leading Kia of Jason Zhang during the early stages of the race, only to dive into the pits after the seatbelts on his Volkswagen Lamando came loose.

After scoring a podium in the first race on Saturday, sitting behind the eventful fight between BAIC Senova’s Darryl O’Young and Kia’s Leo Yi, Couto was making quick progress in the reversed grid race and was all set to make a pass on Zhang’s Kia until the seatbelt issue.

“My seatbelts came off and I drove three or four laps in that condition, and I thought that was not a good idea,” said Couto to TouringCarTimes. “I had to come in and do the belts. Especially in touring cars where you’re always banging each other.

“But part of me was crazy enough to carry on, then I had to think ‘no, crazy guy, pit in’.”

Couto enjoyed his CTCC debut and didn’t rule out further outings in the championship.

“It’s very different to what I’m used to driving, but at the end of the day, it’s a front-wheel drive car, they all feel the same. But these cars especially are even harder to drive as they can generate a lot of torque but the traction is not there, so it’s very difficult to control.”

Couto doesn’t count as one of the SAIC VW333 Racing team’s four allowed international driver wild card races, as he’s Macanese, meaning the team still have three international starts remaining.

Rob Huff drove for the team in the first race at Shanghai and is due back later in the year, with the team soon to announce a star replacement for this weekend’s round at Wuhan.