Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil has scored a double podium in a rain soaked weekend at the Salzburgring in Austria.
Pepe Oriola completed a brilliant qualifying session that allowed him to take an early lead in the first race. He had a substantial lead and looked like a sure winner until an engine issue ruled him out for the rest of the weekend.
James Nash had more bad luck in qualifying with a differential problem preventing him from setting a time in either session. The team stepped up as usual and did an amazing job to repair the car for the first race. Nash got down to business and moved up an incredible 13 places to take second on the podium in a flawless drive.
Sergey Afanasyev was making his way up the field when a racing incident forced him off the track, into the gravel and out of the race. The team was able to repair Afanasyev’s car for Race 2 but he was forced to start in P15. That didn’t matter as Afanasyev put in an extremely talented drive in horrendous rain to score the best result of his TCR career, a second place podium.
Nash didn’t let the rain stop him either, battling his way up the field from P13 to finish just outside the podium in P4. Oriola is now P2 in the drivers’ championship, trailing the lead by only one point. Nash has reignited his championship and is in P3, while Afanasyev sits securely in P7.
Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil has retained their comfortable lead in the team’s championship, seeing off their competition by 43 points at the top of the table.
