‘IT COULD have been worse’ was Andy Priaulx’s message as he relinquished his lead in the World Touring Car Championship after rounds 11 and 12 in Mexico yesterday. As he started race two at Puebla last on the grid having placed 18th in race one, it looked as if the Guernseyman would finish the weekend pointless.

However, an inspired drive saw him weave through the traffic and up to seventh and claim a couple of points towards his title aspirations. He now lies joint second in the standings on 46 points.

‘I am not sorry the Mexican round of the FIA WTCC is over for another year, but also am not that unhappy at the outcome as I did score a couple of points,’ Priaulx said.

‘Sadly I have lost my lead in the points table, but my mate James Thompson is only three points in front so I know that all is not lost.’

At one point during the meeting there had been suggestions that the races might be cancelled due to the track breaking up, having only recently being resurfaced.

It meant that there was very little grip for the cars, but as Priaulx explained, everyone worked hard to find a solution.

‘The weekend started badly with the problems over the track. However, we had gone all that way and none of us wanted to leave without having raced,’ he said.

‘The track was breaking up badly, but we just had to drive sensibly as safety was important in these conditions.’

Carrying the maximum handicap of 80kg, the Sarnian was pleased to qualify in 10th for race one and that position was to improve, but it proved a tough race.

‘I started race one from eighth thanks to a couple of drivers having to go down the grid after changing engines.

‘Sadly in this race I came up against Gabriele Tarquini no fewer than three times and ended up dropping back to 18th after the final coming together we had.’

Due to neutralisation of parc ferme in-between races, the BMW Team UK driver had every other competitor ahead of him at the start of race two.

‘I knew race two from the back of the grid with 80kg ballast was not going to be easy.

‘To be honest, I feared any chance of points was out of the window,’ said Priaulx.

‘However, it takes more than this to stop me and I just concentrated on passing as many drivers as possible and was delighted with my seventh and the two points that go with that.’