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Catsburg: WTCC needs "hard look" at tyres after double puncture

Volvo driver Nicky Catsburg believes that the WTCC organisers need to take a "hard look" at the series' tyres after the two punctures he suffered in both races last weekend in Argentina.

Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar

Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar

FIA WTCC

Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Polesitter Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
Nicky Catsburg, Thed Björk, Nestor Girolami, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar during MAC3 qualifying
Nicky Catsburg, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

Catsburg had arrived at Termas de Rio Hondo third in the standings, and he was just eight points behind series leader Tiago Monteiro after taking pole position on Saturday.

But the Dutch driver suffered a disastrous opening race on Sunday, his Volvo S60 picking up a front-left puncture on the seventh lap and dropping out of fifth place.

Catsburg started race two from pole after topping qualifying, and had a comfortable lead until suffering another puncture, again on the front-left, denying him a likely second victory of the year.

His issues follow a wave of criticism aimed at WTCC tyre supplier Yokohama in the wake of a spate of punctures that affect drivers during the Nurburgring round in May.

Speaking to Motorsport.com afterwards, Catsburg said he had "no idea" what had caused the punctures.

"This is a very smooth and flat track, there are no kerbstones where you can hurt the tyre," he said. "There are not even a lot of compressions on the track.

"If you compare it to Vila Real where you are bumping the kerbstones the whole race, we are not even close to that here, so we are not really sure what is going on".

Asked if he believed his punctures could be related to the set-up of his car, the Volvo driver rejected this possibility as teammates Thed Bjork and Nestor Girolami avoided similar problems.

"It's hard to imagine because the set-ups are almost equal [between the team's cars], and actually after race one we were very conservative with the tyre pressure because we were not sure why we had a puncture in race one," explained Catsburg.

"We were very conservative, and even being conservative we destroyed the tyre, so we need to see what is going on.

"One thing which is clear is that we have had punctures all season, not [just] me but in general drivers in championship, and I think we need to have a hard look at the tyres we are driving on."

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