TCR: Julien Apothéloz pays a lesson 🎥
Young driver Julien Apothéloz proved his speed in the first races of the ADAC TCR Germany. However, the young man from Zurich has not yet been able to put it to good use. After the brilliant performance at the winning race in Hockenheim in September 2018, which brought him the overall victory in the Young Driver Challenge, Julien Apothéloz saw himself at the first [...]
After a brilliant performance at the race-winning event in Hockenheim in September 2018, which earned him overall victory in the Young Driver Challenge, Julien Apothéloz found himself brought back to brutal reality over the first two weekends of the 2019 ADAC TCR Germany. At the season opener in Oschersleben at the end of April, the 18-year-old high school student was less than a tenth of a second short of making it into the second qualifying segment of the fastest twelve. The first race start with a sequential gearbox in Topcar Sport's Cupra TCR didn't go particularly well after that, either, and Apothéloz dropped to the back of the field.
He had to end the second race prematurely after a knock from the high curbs with a defective radiator. After everything had gone great up to the German TCR season opener, most recently with the class win at the Dubai 24 Hours, this gnawed somewhat at the self-confidence of the talented youngster.
Encouraging fourth starting position
At his second appearance last weekend in Most, Czech Republic, top ten finishes in the free practice sessions gave him the boost he needed.
Julien Apothéloz: "I'm trying to pick up exactly where I left off in training. I want to put less pressure on myself and just have fun riding!"
Combined with the tips and the impeccable technical preparation of his Bernese team, Apothéloz put his plan into practice. This time he made it into Q2, where a super lap earned him fourth place on the grid. This made him the best brand representative from the VW Group amid the overpowering alliance of the Hyundai i30 N and Honda Civic.
Innocent accident victim
The great starting position raised justified expectations for the race heats. The Swiss again got off to a bad start and lost four places. After a few laps, lying comfortably in eighth position, a gross driving error by Honda driver Marcel Fugel literally led to the downing of Apothéloz's Cupra TCR.
In the short summary of the first race, the accident can be seen clearly, as well as the subsequent discussion between team boss Ronny Jost and the person responsible for the accident:
The first top ten result
Thanks to a feat of strength by Topcar Sport, the badly damaged Cupra TCR was made ready again for Sunday's race. Now Apothéloz started the race in reverse order of the top 10 from qualifying, starting from 7th place.
The youngster lost out in the duel against the experienced cracks like Harald Proczyk and Mike Halder in the starting phase and quickly sorted himself into 9th place. He defended this position until the end and finished directly behind the reigning champion Proczyk. In ninth place, Apothéloz was also second in the Junior classification.
Hope for the remaining races
Of course, Apothéloz had hoped for more from the two race runs after qualifying. But he knows exactly where there is room for improvement. He needs to work on the starts and tire management, which he sees as the biggest difference between karting and touring car racing.
With the certainty that he has the speed to be among the front runners, the young driver is tackling the upcoming events.
Julien Apothéloz: "After the season opener at Oschersleben, where we lacked pace, we were competitive throughout the weekend at Most. For me, it's more important at the moment that the pace is right, because we can certainly make rapid progress with the starts and tire management. So I'm already looking forward enormously to the next race over the Whitsun weekend at the Red Bull Ring."
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