After hard Saturday sessions, Petr Fulín shined on Slovakiaring on Sunday and takes Top 5 placement in FIA WTCR

16.07.2018

Thanks to wildcard receival, Petr Fulín got the opportunity to compete with world's elite in World Touring Car Cup FIA WTCR behind the wheel of his CUPRA Leon TCR. On his “almost-home“ track of Slovakiaring he successfully coped with added weight and in the end, he finished the weekend on fifth place.

Saturday brought to Czech driver lots of troubles – higher compensation ballast and tuning of setup on brand new tyres took in the 26-car field their toll and after seventeenth place in the Qualifying session, Fulda got the 15th spot, in the second race of the weekend he lost positions due to contact with one of the competitors and finished one lap down in the results. Fulda entered Sunday race in sixteenth spot, however, in the middle of the field he looked around well and after he managed to survive mass collision, he entered Top 10. After overtaking series‘ regulars of Tom Coronel and both Alfa Romeo drivers, Fulda moved into Top 5 and kept his position until the end of the race. He finished the third, most points awarding race right behind Thed Björk, last year‘s world champion, and half a second from the podium spot. That would mean the third spot in the imaginary standings between CUPRA Leon TCR drivers, who compete in the whole season.

"I am maximally satisfied with the result. Since the first practice it was really hard, we had to get used to new tyres and whole atmosphere of the world cup. During the whole weekend, we were optimalizing our setup and struggled with tyres, I must say we were helped by incident in the beginning of the race. Great thanks for the entire team, it was a great fight and we really had to fight for this fairy tale, for this happy ending," revealed Petr Fulín his emotions right after the race. This year, Petr has the ambition to compete with European elite as well, mid-October in Barcelona.

FIA WTCR on Slovakiaring Race One results:

1. Pepe Oriola (ESP) CUPRA Leon TCR

2. Jean-Karl Vernay (FRA) Audi RS3 TCR + 1.734

3. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA) Hyundai i30 TCR + 2.374

4. Aurélien Comte (FRA) Peugeot 308 TCR + 5.525

5. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA) Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR + 5.773

6. Yann Ehrlacher (FRA) Honda Civic TCR + 7.357

7. Tom Coronel (NED) Honda Civic TCR + 7.725

8. Denis Dupont (BEL) Audi RS3 TCR + 8.190

9. Aurélien Panis (FRA) Audi RS3 TCR + 8.993

10. Nathanaël Berthon (FRA) Audi RS3 TCR + 9.813

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