Difficut start to the season for the young ace from Mahon, who is sponsored by Motorisa Renault Trucks Mallorca and Pinturas R-M, at Autódormo do Estoril, where the TCR Iberian, the TCR Spain and the TCR Portugal kicked off. Salom suffered enginerelated issues at race start and struggled to get the new Hankook tires to work consistenly.
Faust Salom expected an extremely different first race of the season at Autódormo do Estoril, the famous Portuguese race track playing host to the season opener for theTCR Iberian, the TCR Spain and the TCR Portugal. Salom, driving a Baporo Motorsport-entered SEAT León Cup Racer TCR instead of DSG version used last year when dominated the Spanish Endurance Championship, was forced to tackle an extremely demanding first round due to several issues impacting on-track performances. New mandatory Hankook’s tires are very different from Michelin rubber used last year and his experience was only six laps during free practice session. Besides, in the race Salom experienced engine issues at race start, which definitely ruined his chances.
The above notwithstanding, Salom’s lap times of 1:50.4 and 1:50.8 clocked in both free practice sessions, had a wide margin of potential for improvement and the Spaniard turned a best lap of 1:48.648 to take fourth spot on the starting grid for Saturday’s race battling with local Portuguese drivers, with much more experience at Estoril and with Hankook tires. Unfortunately, Salom lost fifty seconds following his engine-related issues and, despite he pushed hard to recover positions, the driver of Baporo Motorsport gained one place but was too far away from the rest of the field. Salom still brought 11th place home. On Sunday, his Portuguese teammate Gustavo Moura started from seventh on the grid but his SEAT was hit by another rival and dropped to 8th.
Faust Salom: “Well, that’s racing. Despiteourpre-race planning, these things may happen. It was exactly our case last weekend. I had no previous experience with TCR-spec car and Hankook tires were completely new as well. And it exacted a heavy toll.. Anyway I’m happy with my pace despite my lack of experience.
Following some issues in free practice sessions with set-up, I secured a second row start for race one on Saturday. But I lost fifty seconds due to engine issues at the start, so I was left with no real chances. I tried to put in a recovery drive but tires performances prevented me from improving much more. On Sunday, Moura was hit by another car, which damaged car steering,and we weren’t able to score more points. We must turn the page and focus on Jarama.
I’m keen to rectify my difficult start there. A huge thank you to Motorisa Renault Trucks and R-M Pinturas. My goal isto fight for win in Madrid. See you there!”