Tony D'Alberto was forced to fight back through the pack in another up-and-down weekend of TCR Australia racing at Phillip Island on the weekend.
The Honda Civic Type R TCR driver was the fastest in practice and proved far too good for his rivals in qualifying, outpacing the field by nearly half a second in another blistering performance. His lap time was the fastest-ever TCR lap recorded around the famous Island venue.
D’Alberto’s weekend was thrown on its head at the fourth corner of the first race when he was tagged awkwardly by Honda stablemate Brad Harris and Hyundai driver Josh Bucan. The incident sent Tony’s Honda FL5 off the track and into last place.
With the bit between his teeth, D'Alberto started a sensational recovery drive in the final two races on Sunday, finishing eighth in Race 2 and a fine fourth in Race 3.
D'Alberto says that the speed of his Honda is on point – he just needs a little luck to bring home more trophies.
The Honda Civic Type R TCR driver was the fastest in practice and proved far too good for his rivals in qualifying, outpacing the field by nearly half a second in another blistering performance. His lap time was the fastest-ever TCR lap recorded around the famous Island venue.
D’Alberto’s weekend was thrown on its head at the fourth corner of the first race when he was tagged awkwardly by Honda stablemate Brad Harris and Hyundai driver Josh Bucan. The incident sent Tony’s Honda FL5 off the track and into last place.
With the bit between his teeth, D'Alberto started a sensational recovery drive in the final two races on Sunday, finishing eighth in Race 2 and a fine fourth in Race 3.
D'Alberto says that the speed of his Honda is on point – he just needs a little luck to bring home more trophies.
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MotorTranscript
00:00Round 3 of TCR here at Phillip Island this weekend.
00:13It promised so much, quickest in practice, qualified the car on pole, won the start in
00:18race 1 and unfortunately got taken out on the first lap, turn 4 there.
00:23From there my weekend sort of unraveled, we didn't get any points in that race.
00:27And then in race 2 I tried to recover from P14, finished 8th, and then the last race
00:31came through to P4.
00:33So not a bad recovery on Sunday, but for what we had earlier in the weekend where we had
00:38the fastest car, you know, I would have expected some better results.
00:40But that's the way it goes sometimes, we'll just keep punching, keep trying to get those
00:44pole position checks.
00:46I'm obviously really happy with the speed of the FL5, it's been super quick since we
00:57rolled it out last year, and especially the last two rounds.
01:00Two pole positions, back to back, that's no mean feat and we broke the lap record here
01:04at Phillip Island this weekend.
01:05So the car's got plenty of pace, I just need a little bit of luck on my side and next round
01:09at Tail and Bend I know the car's going to be fast again.
01:12We're hoping to test there prior to the event, so we're going to go there guns blazing.
01:16And I'm just hoping we can have some clean races, the speed part of it's sort of taken
01:19care of itself, but I need a little bit of luck on my side.