A fantastic result for Volkswagen Team Oettinger, after a slight shift in focus, for a double podium at TCR Asia Series Round 7 in Zhejiang International Circuit, China. Khalid Adam claims his first Asia Cup class win whilst his teammate, Roland Hertner gained another podium for his Cup class battle.
“It was a job well done by the drivers and everyone in the team. They worked well together and are all on the same page to give us a great result today” said Kurt Treml, Team Manager of Volkswagen Team Oettinger.
The Sepang International Circuit Talent Development driver managed a solid performance during the two Qualifying sessions held earlier this morning. “It was a great qualifying and we managed 8th. Starting the race on the inside helped me a lot in gaining the positions at the start and after that it was just head down and tried not to look back at all” said Adam after the race.
“We were closing up to Diego and for sure if it had been better circumstances we could be further up ahead”. Seeing that he was already in the Asia Cup lead, Adam made the smart decision not to ruin his position, “with Diego ahead of me by just one position, I thought it made no sense to make a crazy move and risk my position”
In the end, Adam is grateful for the podium and happy with the results of the day, “I just want to say thank you to the team, to Sepang and to God for today. We will sit with the engineers and will work harder for tomorrow’s race. Starting on second row, so I will try to make the most of it”.
His teammate had one of the toughest races in the season so far. Hertner had to claw his way back to his podium position after being hit from behind midway through the race. He spun and only managed to rejoin the race in last. From there he fought his way back up the grid, battling the likes of Rodolfo Avila and coming off with a well-deserved podium finish.
“It was a good race, a hard race. I managed a good start to take the lead in the Cup Championship battle but midway through the race, the incident cost me the lead. Finishing second on the podium today was a bit bittersweet, bitter because we lost the win but sweet because despite everything, we managed to fight our way back up on the podium” said Hertner after the race.
“We can be very satisfied with the race today” said Treml. “We managed a win in the Asia Cup and also a podium, a very hard fought podium, in the Cup Championship with Roland.
“We are very proud of Adam, who, since the beginning of the week has done a very good job. He worked really hard with the engineers, asking questions and generally making great effort throughout and making a smart race. It showed with his result and his first podium of the season. We are happy and proud of him.
“Tomorrow he will start in second row with the reverse grid and we hope he will be able to use this to his advantage.
“As for Roland, we are always happy to race with him. He is a great gentleman driver, on and off the track and always a pleasure to watch him compete” ended Treml.
For more information on TCR Asia Series as well as live stream information, follow the series at www.facebook.com/TCRAsiaSeries
Round 8 of TCR Asia Series 2019 is scheduled to be held at 11.20am (local time) at the Zhejiang International Circuit, China.
The team is supported by Liqui Moly, VW Motorsport, Pagid Racing, Motec rims,
Recaro and Eibach.
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