Augusto Farfus is a more than experienced race driver, but at the weekend, he competed at a track that was completely new for him. The sixth round of the 2019 FIA World Touring Car Cup was held on the Vila Real street circuit in Portugal when the driver from Curitiba collected another podium finish with his Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Augusto started the FIA WTRC weekend positively. In Saturday’s qualifying, he secured second place on the front row of the grid. In a strong first race, he drove a steady pace to cross the finish line in third place and secure the second podium finish of his FIA WTCR debut season. Only two weeks ago, he raced his #8 car to the podium at the Nürburgring.
After the strong Saturday, Augusto had great expectations for Sunday, aiming for two more top results. However, an incident during Sunday’s qualifying ended up compromising the rest of the day. After hitting the wall during the session, the team had to change the engine for race two, but the spare engine did not perform as expected. For the third race, they also changed another component. As a result, Augusto had to start from the pits but also failed to reach the end of the race.
“We started the weekend very positively, with all Hyundai ahead, which promised a lot”, Augusto summed up. “We had an incredible day on Saturday. We were strong in qualifying and in the race and secured another podium. Sunday, however, I ended up crashing in qualifying and damaged the engine, so we had to change it for the races. But the spare engine did not work in the right way in race two. And for race three, we had to change the turbo and therefore start from the pits. We were unable to convert all the potential into more points, which was a shame. Anyway, we have scored another good result and show increasingly solid performance. Now we will prepare for the next round in China. “
The FIA WTCR is now moving to Asia, where the China round will be held from September 13th to 15th. Augusto, however, will be in action again already later this month. From 25th to 28th July, he will compete in the famous 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, with the BMW M6 GT3.
