Attila Tassi: “I touched the wall many times”
Engstler Motorsport’s Attila Tassi achieved a FIA WTCR podium result at Vila Real with second place in Race 2. The Hungarian admitted it had been “one of the hardest races in my life.”
The season hasn’t been easy for Tassi and team-mate Tiago Monteiro of Team Engstler, with both struggling with overall speed.
“Until this point the season seemed to have more downs than ups,” Tassi said after the race. “This was already from Pau, but the past is the past and we are always looking into the future.”
“It was nice to come back to Vila Real, it’s amazing to be here and I missed it the two years they were out, especially because Tiago and me have very nice memories from 2019, so I was looking forward to coming here.”
Tassi started from second place on the reverse grid, maintaining his position in the initial stages. The Hungarian had to defend from Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona, and only lost position to Zengo Motorsport’s Rob Huff, who had a better joker lap strategy.
“I knew we had better opportunities coming here in the street circuits and I liked to search my limits, so I was happy to race here,” added the Hungarian. “It wasn’t the easiest race of my life and we had a clutch issue before the race, so we knew it would be tough getting off the line, and I was lucky to get off as I could.
“I was expecting the Lynk & Co to be faster than me, so I tried as hard as I could,” added the Engstler Motorsport driver. “So, after the safety car, I saw Mikel going for the joker lap and I think on that lap I touched the wall twice as I was on the limit and I almost outbraked myself when I did mine.
“Rob did an amazing job, I couldn’t keep up with him, I touched the wall many times, but thankfully the safety car came out half a lap later.
“It is said that it’s better late than never, so thank you very much to Honda and the team for this result, they did an amazing job and I’m really happy that we finally have a result in the box and I hope there is more to come in the future,” concluded Tassi.
