Andy Priaulx had a tough weekend in the WTCR Race of Japan 2019. In race one, through no fault of his own, his Lynk & Co 03 TCR ended up in the barriers, in race two he was 16th and in race three he was fifth. For Andy the weekend started off in fine form on the East Course of the Suzuka Circuit that he quickly came to terms with and liked enormously. On Friday he was first in the first two qualifying sessions for race one and then after Q3 was fifth on the grid. Sadly he was not able to translate this into a good race result on Saturday, as during the race he was hit from behind by the Hyundai of Nicky Catsburg and ended up hitting the barriers very hard. After the first nine-lap race the triple World Champion said: “I am hugely disappointed with the driving standards and that I did not finish the race. While Catsburg was given a drive through, and took it during the race, that didn’t help me at all. Tomorrow is a new day, let’s have another go and see what happens. I was also given a ten place grid penalty for walking across the track and crossing the white line at the pit lane exit, so will have to take that in race two.” True to his word the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing driver put that behind him and after the end of the further two races on Sunday he said: “Today I am much happier with overall positive performances in the two races. I had to defend really hard for almost the entire final race, but want to say thanks to Tarquini and Huff for tough but fair fights. I am glad I have helped the team get more valuable championship points. The good result with the fight for pole in qualifying is something I shall take with me to the next race of the season in Macau, which is one of my favourite circuits.”