Lopez elated with "priceless" Nordschleife victory

Lopez claimed his fourth win from eight races in the from pole position in the first encounter at the legendary German track, putting on a faultless performance in to lead a Citroen podium lockout,

The 2014 champion followed that up by going from 10th to second in race two, slipstreaming his way past the two Hondas of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro on the main Dottinger Hohe straight on the final lap to cross the line right on the tail of a victorious Yvan Muller.

Asked whether a comfortable victory in race one or second place with all the action in race two felt more satisfying, Lopez responded: “Both were great.

“Winning is priceless because I really wanted to win here, so without that the second race wouldn’t have been as special as it was."

Recalling the final stages of an action-packed second race, Lopez said: “I saw the gap between Tarquini and I and it was three to four seconds, and I had to think whether I just stay fourth as it was still pretty good for the championship, or if I should try to go for it.

“I was thinking about [going for] third, but then I took the slipstream of Gabriele and passed him, and I was a little bit lucky as I think that Tiago had lost the slipstream from Yvan because he was a little bit too far behind.

“We had taken a bit of a risk as we went with just three degrees of rear wing, which was difficult on the corners, but the speed on the main straight was amazing.

“I took the slipstream and passing for second was amazing.”

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes