Tom Coronel: “In 33 years of motorsport, I’ve never seen anything like this”

Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel insists that there was ‘no danger to race’ at the Nürburgring despite World Touring Car Cup organisers cancelling both races amid concerns over tyres.

Following a meeting on Saturday morning between WTCR teams and officials from Eurosport Events, the decision was made to call off the races after several team reported tyre damage across practice and qualifying.

Coronel was due to start 14th on the grid for the pair of races before the cancellation and says the situation is unprecedented in his career.

“In 33 years of motorsport, I’ve never seen anything like this, the decision that has been taken,” Coronel told TouringCarTimes.

“I’m gutted of course, I don’t understand how I can explain this situation to my sponsors and partners.

“We know that the Nürburgring is strong on the tyres, we’ve had issues with Yokohama in the past. I had a tyre explosion at the Schweden Kreuz corner and crashed previously.”

Coronel also stressed that, while some of his rivals had reported vibrations, they still had the option to stop. The Dutchman maintained his willingness to race.

“There was no danger situation to race, if you could feel the vibrations you could stop,” he said. “Of course I wanted to race, but I can’t speak for the others.

“The strange thing is that the situation has been there for a long time.

“Who will responsible for my losses? In my opinion it’s Goodyear. They will say, I’m sorry. Sorry, but apology not accepted.”

Goodyear released a statement following qualifying and then again on Saturday morning in which it stated that it would be collecting all tyres used across the WTCR weekend in order to conduct further analysis.

The WTCR season is due to resume in two weeks time at the Hungaroring.