Teddy Clairet praises team effort after maiden TCR Europe podium

Teddy Clairet praised his Team Clairet Sport team’s efforts over the off-season after claiming his first TCR Europe series career podium in Race 2 at Paul Ricard.

The Peugeot 308TCR driver withstood severe pressure from the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR of Andreas Bäckman throughout the ten lap encounter, eventually beating the Swedish driver to the final step on the podium by less than half a second.

Teddy’s brother Jimmy was unable to fight for a similar result, having pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap with an as yet unspecified technical issue with his Peugeot.

Despite this, Teddy was able to fight hard without the presence of a rear-gunner, but prevailed in what he labelled as “a fair, good battle”.

“It was a hard race because I didn’t have the best rhythm,” Clairet said post-race.

“I knew that Andreas Bäckman and some of the other guys were faster behind me, but it was really fair with them, a good battle, so I want to thank them for that.

“I just tried to concentrate on myself, I didn’t want to make any mistakes and I wanted to give my all to finish on the podium.

“This was my first podium, so I’m very pleased; we worked a lot during the winter to improve our performance so I’m very happy with that. I must say thanks to my team and also to Peugeot Sport.”

Teddy’s third place is the first podium for either of the Clairet brothers, with Jimmy having been stripped of an on-the-road second at Spa-Francorchamps last season following a penalty.