Daniel Lloyd made his debut in the 2019 TCR Europe Touring Car Series at the Hockenheimring in Germany, however, his early weekend pace went without reward in both races.
The 2018 TCR UK Champion has signed with Brutal Fish Racing Team for the rest of the season. During Free Practice, Lloyd set times that would put him inside the top five, showing good pace for the rest of the weekend.
In Qualifying, the Honda driver set the fastest time in the dying seconds of Q1, to secure a place in Q2. With the Honda laden with an extra twenty kilos as Lloyd was a late entry, the Yorkshire driver was unable to replicate his pace on used tyres and had to settle for eighth place in race one. This also gave him third place on the reversed grid for race two.
Everything unravelled in the races. After making a slow start in the first race, Lloyd began making progress up the order but his race would end on the second lap. On the run to turn two, the Honda driver dived on the inside of Luca Filippi, only to find Aurélien Comte on the other side of the Hyundai, with contact inevitable.
Lloyd was out on the spot and handed a five-place grid penalty for the second race. With a brake issue meaning he would go on to finish in thirteenth place in race two, Lloyd survived a difficult weekend.
The reigning TCR UK champion summed up his thoughts on bout his opening weekend in TCR Europe, whilst looking ahead to a better weekend in Belgium next time out.
“The weekend started so well, so it’s bitterly disappointing to leave without any results to show for it,” said Lloyd.
“Fourth place in opening practice was good, but my best lap came on new tyres, so when I was able to repeat the position in FP2 on old rubber, we could all see within the team that we’d made a big step forward. Spa is next and we should be in good shape.”
