Stian Paulsen viste et godt tempo i TCR Europe da han fikk låne bilen til Tom Coronel på Norisring. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen på engelsk.
The weekend at Norisring is over. It was an hell of a weekend, it was amazing to be back in the car fighting! I realized this weekend really how much I miss it!
I will make a long story as short as possible. I was this weekend jumping in for the legend Tom Coronel. He drives this Audi RS3 LMS in the European and World championship. This weekend it was European and World championship at the same time. just to be the replacement driver for Tom is an honor.
As mention in an earlier mail, I was at Spa in Belgium for testing 2 weeks ago. It was raining on that test, it was raining a lot so I drove 8-10 laps only before we had to stop. This Friday at Norisring it was also raining, I was behind on the pace, but I was very afraid of crashing the car since I didn’t have any insurance on the car this weekend.
Saturday and Sunday the forecast said it would be 30 degrees and sun, it turned out to be right. That mean I went straight to qualifying without driving on dry conditions since 2019. I had never driven this car on dry, I had also never used this Kumho tire before. I ended up P16 in the qualifying, 0.6 seconds behind the fastest guy. That gave me starting position 16 for both races.
Race 1 a had an amazing start, from P16 I was P8 after the first lap. I had my team mate who leads the championship into the last corner on the first lap, I decided to back out and just keep my position and help my team mate since I got this race for a special price from the team. Start of second lap it came safety car after some accidents first lap. When we restarted I had and small oversteer the last corner and ended some meters behind P7. I fallowed the pack till the last 5 laps, from that point and in I was the fastest driver on track and caught all the guys in front, finished right behind P6 and 7, 4. I finished P8 4.6 seconds behind the winner. I was very happy with the result, many other was also very impressed with what I did.
Race 2 on Sunday I had again an rocket start, P9 after first lap! After my team mate again, I was thinking I just stay behind my team mate and fallow him since I know he was fast. I was cruising, saved my tire and made myself ready to push at the end. I fallowed my team mate up to P7, my team mate passed P6, next lap I did the same but on down breaking my car went from first gear t N. This is something who normally is not possible. To get the car back in 1 gear you have to stop. From that point my race was over when you thinking about getting a good result. I continued to drive to the end, I was catching the leader of the race every lap I didn’t overtake and driver and I put the fastest middle sector of all in the race. My team mate finished P4, just behind P2 and 3. In the best situation a podium had been in range without this gear problem.
Before we ending this with some pictures I say a lot thanks to all my partners and sponsors who made this possible!
The plane now is to continue working on my workshop and try to make it ready as soon as possible, i will send out an e-mail with picture of the progress now the next weeks.