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PODIUM FINISHES AND HARD FIGHTS FOR FILES IN HUNGARY’S OPENING ROUND

Josh Files put on a controlled display of race craft in the TCR Europe opener at the Hungaroring. In changeable conditions he fought back from a pit lane start to 8th position in race 2 following on from his podium finish in race 1. As a result he sits just 5 points shy of the championship leader in 6th place leaving the weekend.

Free Practice
With only new tyres available, given this were the first round of a 7 event calendar, all cars had to start with new tyres. In the first free practice Files drove to 3rd place having only completed one lap, choosing instead to keep the tyres as fresh as possible. In the second free practice, with the same tyres, Files drove his car to 5thagain choosing only to complete a handful of laps and focusing on practice start procedures.

Qualifying
In the first part (Q1) of a 2 part qualifying, Files turned a 1m 53.523s lap putting him comfortably through into the Q2 pole position shootout. In Q2 with the track gripping up, the car’s balance started to shift away from the optimum working window, even still Files again turned out a blistering lap of 1m 52.200s enough to put him 4th on the grid for race 1 with 7th for the race 2 reverse grid. 

Race 1
Starting from 4th place Files made a quick getaway and was able to sneak up the inside at turn 1 of fellow team-mate Andreas Backman. Having taken 2nd spot he started pursuit of the leader whilst also having to defend heavily from the fast starting Peugeot of Julian Briche. Eventually dispelling the Peugeot Files locked onto the race leader and hunted him down over the closing stages, but narrowly missed the win by a mere 0.4s at the line. An excellent 2nd place result!

Race 2
Taking up the reverse grid position of 7th, the Brits team Target Competition noticed a component failure on the grid. Wheeled back into the pit lane for immediate repairs, they managed to replace the component in record time, but this left Files starting race 2 from the pit lane, and worse still 37th and last. With drizzle falling and the track dampening, luck was turning as this played into Files’ strength and favourite conditions, a wet track on slick tyres. 

As the lights went out there was an immediate safety car intervention. At the restart Files was lying 35th and 20.2s behind then race leader. Over the next 12 minutes of action, as rain worsened Files set about a major recovery drive overtaking more than 6 cars a lap at times. Having posted the fastest lap of the race by some margin, he fought his way back to a points scoring position of 8th by the finish line, and more impressively he was only 8.3s behind the race winner.

“That was absolutely crazy” exclaimed an elated Files. “I really thought that was it when I had to get wheeled back into the pits. For the boys at Target to swap out a wishbone in record time is testament to the great work they do! Of course starting from the pits is never easy, but the conditions were perfect for me and having to get stuck into a race like that was just awesome!”

“I’m really happy with the car and extremely happy with my performance this weekend. The recovery was amazing; I had some great wheel to wheel action, it’s just unfortunate I couldn’t start P7 as I feel that race could have been mine for the taking given our speed. But then I feel very lucky the conditions changed and allowed me to make up 29 places from the pits. It was mega fun drifting everywhere!”

“Coupled with my 2nd place in race 1 I really have to thank the guys at Target for their great work, and of course all the guys at Hyundai Motorsport for helping me understand my tools a little better. Finally a big shout out must go to AirWalk for their continued support. We will be fighting even harder in Hockenheim!”

Round 2 of TCR Europe takes place at the Hockenheimring in Germany over the weekend of 24th - 26th May.