N.Technology's James Thompson claimed his first World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) points finish at the wheel of the Honda Accord Euro R Super 2000, in only the car's second-ever race meeting, with a superb drive in wet weather on the streets of Pau.
Setting the third fastest lap in race one on a dry track, Thompson finished 11th from a 14th place start before climbing to eighth place in race two, despite extremely wet weather conditions.
The race started under the safety car, but despite the difficult conditions, which caught out many of his rivals, Thompson overtook the BMW of Jörg Müller on lap ten to earn a deserved championship point.
The result is proof of the progress made by the team in developing the car, which made its WTCC debut just two weeks ago, in the previous round of the championship at Valencia. The team now moves on to Brno, Czech Republic, in two weeks time, where the goal is to continue to improve the car's overall competitiveness.
James Thompson, car number 15 "You always want to be fighting for race wins but scoring the first point is a big step towards that goal. The car was really good in the wet during free practice so I knew we had the pace to fight for a top eight finish. Considering how little time we have had to develop the car, it's fantastic. I just took it easy in the first few laps of the race and used the pace of the car to pick people off. With the amount of work everyone at the team has put in, today's result is a great reward.
"We also showed we had found some more pace in the dry in race one, so after a difficult qualifying session there's a lot we can take from today. If we were starting the weekend again with what we know now we'd be a lot more competitive, which shows what we've been able to learn."
Andrea Muller, Team Manager "It's fantastic to have scored our first point. We showed during practice that we had good pace in the wet and certainly the conditions helped us in the race. We still need to improve our pace in the dry and we kept working at the car - it was definitely improved in the first race. But I like to see the glass as half-full. We have finished four out of four races, so we have reliability, we have our first point and we have been making good progress."
FIA World Touring Car Championship - Pau Round seven result 1. Augusto Farfus (BRA), BMW 320si 2. Yvan Muller (FRA), SEAT Leon TDI 3. Jordi Gene (ESP), SEAT Leon TDI 4. Rob Huff (GBR), Chevrolet Lacetti 5. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA), SEAT Leon TDI 6. Rickard Rydell (SWE), SEAT Leon TDI 7. Nicola Larini (ITA), Chevrolet Lacetti 8. Andy Priaulx (GBR), BMW 320sis 11. James Thompson (GBR), Honda Accord Euro R S2000
FIA World Touring Car Championship - Pau Round eight result 1. Andy Priaulx (GBR), BMW 320si 2. Nicola Larini (ITA), Chevrolet Lacetti 3. Rickard Rydell (SWE), SEAT Leon TDI 4. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA), SEAT Leon TDI 5. Rob Huff (GBR), Chevrolet Lacetti 6. Augusto Farfus (BRA), BMW 320si 7. Yvan Muller (FRA), SEAT Leon TDI 8. James Thompson (GBR), Honda Accord Euro R S2000
