His debut season in the FIA World Touring Car Cup makes Augusto Farfus travel to race tracks that are completely new for him – despite his enormous experience as a race driver. This was also the case at the weekend, when the seventh round of the 2019 WTCR was held at Ningbo in China. The circuit was a new challenge for Farfus but that did not prevent him from scoring strong results with a fourth and a seventh place. These results prove the progress he makes at the wheel of the #8 Hyundai i30N TCR run by the BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team.
Already in the first free practice, Farfus showed how quickly he can adapt to new challenges and finished the session within the top-5. In Saturday’s first qualifying, the driver from Curitiba set the eighth fastest time – in a field of a total of 26 competitors. Farfus then took the chequered flag in race one in seventh position. On Sunday, Farfus secured 4th on the grid for race two. But he had to retire early from the race after a contact at the start had damaged the suspension of his car. Farfus bounced back in race three. Starting from seventh on the grid, he worked his way towards the front and crossed the line in fourth behind team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, only narrowly missing out his next podium finish.
“We had a good time in Ningbo,” Farfus summed up. “I didn’t know the circuit, but we achieved strong results on both days. Sunday was a bit a day of mixed emotions as in race two, I was fighting for the top-3 already at the start but then a contact resulted in a broken suspension and I had to retire. But the second race was pretty cool. I started from seventh and improved to third. In the finales stages, we lost a bit of performance due to the contact we had at the start of the race and I finished fourth, but very close to another podium. Overall, it was positive as we were able to help our team-mate Norbert Michelisz take the lead in the championship, and helping the team is our goal as well. We are making continuous progress and there are still some races to follow this season. The next one will be at Suzuka where I showed a strong performance just a month ago and we are confident to be doing a good job.”
Augusto Farfus’ next FIA WTCR challenge will take place from 25th to 27th October at Japanese Suzuka where he had secured pole position for the Suzuka 10 Hours a month ago.
