Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli admits that it has been “a weekend of ups and downs” after the Italian finished tenth and sixth in Salzburg’s two World Touring Car Championship races respectively.
Morbidelli had originally qualified on pole position at the circuit on Saturday. However he was subsequently handed a five-place grid penalty for having improved his Q1 time under waved yellow flag conditions.
The Italian scored a brace of points finishes in Sunday’s races, but admitted that he was still reeling from the penalty in qualifying on Saturday.
“Overall this has been a weekend of ups and downs,” admitted Morbidelli. “It still hurts, of course, to think back to the penalty that wiped out my first-ever WTCC pole position.
“However today, especially in race two, I clawed back into the fray confirming in race trim as well as in qualifying that our car has what it takes to stay with the best at this venue.”
In the opening race at the Salzburgring, Morbidelli struggled with his Cruze away from the start line and dropped to tenth – a position from which he was unable to recover as the race progressed.
“Besides having again scant support from the Cruze launch control I did not have the right pace,” said Morbidelli. “On the left-hand corners I had a weird feeling with the car handling and I could not push as hard as I would have liked.
The second race proved to be more competitive for the 46-year-old, with Morbidelli finishing in sixth position – although this still marked a drop of one spot from his starting grid position. Morbidelli was again left frustrated with the stewards, feeling that Tom Coronel’s pass for fifth was unfair.
“[The problem with the car] was fixed for race two, luckily, and I could push hard when I set about to,” added Morbidelli. “This translated in a couple of exciting moves along the race.
“I have been door to door for quite a while with Loeb’s Citroën and it was fun, but I enjoyed even more the outside move on the Honda [of Mehdi Bennani].
“I also went by Tom Coronel on lap eleven when his Cruze went wide at the Esses, but he took back the place which was weird in my opinion. I was told that Tom’s move would have been investigated by the FIA stewards, but no further action has been taken afterwards, which just puts more salt on Saturday’s wound…
“To sum it up, today we racked up some points, moving on top among Chevrolet drivers –which ranks first amid my 2014 targets– but thinking back of Saturday the haul points could have been better than this.”