Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Grégoire Demoustier has scored his very first world championship point in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. The 24 year old driver made his WTCC debut in Argentina for the first round of the season at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo where he drove the #11 Eurodatacar-liveried Chevrolet Cruze.
Friday’s test gave Demoustier crucial circuit time that helped to familiarize himself with the new car and get to grips with the track conditions and layout. It was a successful session that prepared him to tackle Saturday’s practice and qualifying. It was important for the team to complete as many miles and gain as much valuable on track experience as possible with the car because of the lack of pre-season testing. This data will be taken back to Europe and used to make improvements during an extensive test period before the next race in Morocco.
Demoustier utilized Saturday’s practice to further improve his knowledge of the car but also to understand the level of grip that was on offer from the hot Argentine circuit. Not expecting the level of grip to differ so greatly from second practice to qualifying hampered the young driver’s time, but Demoustier was able to complete a 1m49.042s in Q1 which saw him take P15 in his maiden WTCC race.
The first race saw Demoustier battle with the rest of the grid, moving up three places to claim 12th. This showed good pace throughout the race and was a good match for the other Chevrolet Cruzes on the grid. It was in the second race where Demoustier would shine, holding his own with seasoned race winners in the WTCC, the flying Frenchman was able to secure 10th place and a world championship point for both himself and his independent team Craft-Bamboo Racing.
The first WTCC race of the season was a great touring car debut for Grégoire Demoustier and brought him and Craft-Bamboo Racing a vast amount of experience that will be used to make gainful strides in development leading up to the race in Morocco on the 19th April.
