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Tom Chilton now 'settled' in Sebastien Loeb Racing WTCC outfit

Tom Chilton says he now feels 'settled' at the Sebastien Loeb Racing team after scoring his first World Touring Car Championship podium with the independent Citroen outfit at the Hungaroring

Chilton, who made his 100th WTCC start in last Sunday's second race, scored his first podium in almost a year as he trailed team-mate Mehdi Bennani in an SLR one-two in the opening race.

He then finished fifth in the second encounter - achieving both results from 10th on the grid.

With an indifferent start to the season out of the way, Chilton, who switched to the SLR Citroen C-Elysee this season after three years in RML-built Chevrolet Cruzes, said he had begun to feel comfortable in his new surroundings.

"I feel like I'm settling into the team now, although it has taken a long time," he told Autosport.

"I was surprised the first time I drove the Citroen; it is like a rally car.

"Considering how long people have been preparing touring cars, it's strange that it's the quickest way and that no one has done it before."

Chilton was arguably the star of race one after producing a superb display of wet weather driving.

His progress was assisted in part by several front runners making miscalls on tyre choice - with Jose Maria Lopez and Yvan Muller opting for full slicks and Honda's Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro choosing two slicks and two wets - decisions Chilton found hard to fathom.

"I was frustrated after qualifying to miss out on the reversed-grid front row by such a small margin, but I ended up second anyway having started from P10," he said.

"It was quite difficult on the grid when my engineer was questioning my choice of wets, saying, 'But Yvan and Jose Maria at the front are on slicks'.

"Slicks were fine on the out lap, but we weren't at racing speeds and it was raining. I couldn't believe it."

Chilton reached a podium-paying position by lap eight and, after passing Nicky Catsburg's Lada, closed in on team-mate Bennani at the chequered flag.

While he added another top five in the second race, he feels more could have been on offer.

"I didn't want to touch the set-up because I had been so quick in the first race, but it proved not to be ideal when the weather worsened," he said of race two.

"But I achieved everything I wanted to [this weekend], namely two podiums in the WTCC Trophy [for independent drivers], including my first victory of the season, and one podium overall."

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