John Filippi (first): “It feels great because I came into this team for this – for podiums and wins – and so to have this victory in the first race is really great. You always have pressure at the start of a season to achieve something, to deliver a result and so I’m on a cloud at the moment! This car is not an easy car to drive; it’s a little bit different to the CUPRA. The team have another way to set up this car than I was used to in the past and so I need some time to get confidence in the car and the people and to work together to have a dynamic. In Qualifying, it didn’t come together as I wanted but the race was great and that is the most important thing.”

Kobe Pauwels (second): “It was a good race, especially my start which I didn’t expect as it’s all new and there was so much stress in my head! My leg was actually shaking on the clutch and so I thought it would be a really bad start but I made like a rocket. Unfortunately I was on the outside for Turn 1 and so I lost the places which I made up at the start, so that was really unfortunate. I was trying to manage my front tyres but it was really difficult. We were hoping for some oversteer at the beginning but we didn’t get it. Halfway through the race it was just a matter of trying to survive with the front tyres, but I have to say that the battle with Tom was one of the best battles I have ever had! After the race we were both so happy with our race and the battle we had; it was a really enjoyable first race for me.”

Tom Coronel (third): “My start wasn’t the best with a lot of wheelspin and so I lost a place. Then in the first corner I had a big hit from the right rear, so I was completely sideways and I thought ‘okay, this is going to be a special one!’ But I saved the car and finally I had a big fight with Kobe; we were really fighting. I could see that in the first sector I was maybe slightly faster but he was slightly faster in the last sector. We had quite a bit of touching, a lot of Touring Car bumping, and I thought he would give up in Turn 3 but he didn’t. I didn’t understand where the grip was coming from and then we went up the hill towards T4 and Filippi overtook us. The battle kept on going until two laps from the finish, I think, so for seven or eight laps we were challenging each other; a little bit of out-braking and a little bit of overshooting, so it was great fun.”