Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Grégoire Demoustier has scored his very first world championship point in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. The 24 year old driver made his WTCC debut in Argentina for the first round of the season at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo where he drove the #11 Eurodatacar-liveried Chevrolet Cruze.

Friday’s test gave Demoustier crucial circuit time that helped to familiarize himself with the new car and get to grips with the track conditions and layout. It was a successful session that prepared him to tackle Saturday’s practice and qualifying. It was important for the team to complete as many miles and gain as much valuable on track experience as possible with the car because of the lack of pre-season testing. This data will be taken back to Europe and used to make improvements during an extensive test period before the next race in Morocco.

Demoustier utilized Saturday’s practice to further improve his knowledge of the car but also to understand the level of grip that was on offer from the hot Argentine circuit. Not expecting the level of grip to differ so greatly from second practice to qualifying hampered the young driver’s time, but Demoustier was able to complete a 1m49.042s in Q1 which saw him take P15 in his maiden WTCC race.

The first race saw Demoustier battle with the rest of the grid, moving up three places to claim 12th.  This showed good pace throughout the race and was a good match for the other Chevrolet Cruzes on the grid. It was in the second race where Demoustier would shine, holding his own with seasoned race winners in the WTCC, the flying Frenchman was able to secure 10th place and a world championship point for both himself and his independent team Craft-Bamboo Racing.

The first WTCC race of the season was a great touring car debut for Grégoire Demoustier and brought him and Craft-Bamboo Racing a vast amount of experience that will be used to make gainful strides in development leading up to the race in Morocco on the 19th April.

Craft-Bamboo Racing’s World Touring Car Championship campaign would not have been possible without the support of, Eurodatacar, Ravenol, Gravity, Musto, Team Dynamics and Orangebus.

Quotes

Grégoire Demoustier, Driver

Qualifying

"We made some great steps today between the two practice sessions. I didn't maximise the car today in qualifying as I didn't expect such a big step up in grip level between the sessions. The two races tomorrow should help to take a big step forward in my progress."

Race

“I’m happy with the two races but I need to improve my start. My first start was not so good, but my second one was better so I am improving. We did twelve and ten so it’s pretty good, a first point from our first race weekend. I am pretty happy with that.”

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing

“I’m really pleased with Grégoire’s performance this weekend. He improved in each and every session and I’m delighted that he has been rewarded by a championship point from a points finish in race two. Hopefully now we can get back to Europe and take some extensive testing and I’m sure there will be a big improvement for the second race.”