Team Craft-Bamboo Lukoil remain positive after the TCR International Series races in Portimão, despite Pepe Oriola being forced out of the first race due to “unnecessary” contact.
Oriola was battling for fifth position with Target Competition’s Stefano Comini and WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in race one, when Comini made a mistake and clattered the duo. That led to Oriola suffering damage to the left-rear corner of his car and he retired from the race on lap nine.
The Spaniard was able to make his way up to fourth in race two to ensure that he closed the gap to points leader Comini.
“We had great pace this weekend, and I felt very confident in securing some good points,” said Oriola after the fourth event of the season. “Race one was a real battle and once again an out of control Comini damaged my car, puncturing the rear tyre which also caused left rear suspension damage. I did manage to get back to the pits though and the team did a fantastic job of repairing my car in the 15 minutes between race one and race two.”
Oriola resigned himself to not battling with the pace-setting Audis in race two, a strategy which worked when both of the Engstler cars retired from the race.
“Starting from eighth for race two with Audi’s both directly in front and behind me, I knew I had to drive really hard for points to salvage something from the weekend,” added Oriola. “A fourth place was a good result, given my success weight penalty, and I am pleased to have closed the gap to Comini in the Driver Standings. I am pleased for the team as well; they deserve to end the weekend closing the gap on Target in the Team Standings.”
Whilst Oriola salvaged points in race two, Jordi Gené clawed himself back into title contention with a double podium finish at the weekend, leaving the experienced Spaniard 26 points adrift of series leader Comini.
“It was a great weekend in Portugal,” said Gené, who was the weekend’s highest point scorer. “After the fantastic job done by my mechanics to fix the car from the Valencia accident, we had a superb pace trough the hall race weekend. [WE were] the best SEAT León in qualifying and had very good pace in both races.
“With the championship so tight and with so many good drivers it is very difficult to achieve two podiums, so I am very happy for it and for being up in the championship points.”
The team’s third SEAT, driven by Russian Sergey Afanasyev, was hit with a drive-through penalty in race one, due to the team refuelling his car on the grid. That incident prevented him from scoring points, with Afanasyev also being on the receiving end of contact from Comini in race two which forced him into retirement.
“It is really tough, I have been having a lot of bad luck with contact recently and it makes it more frustrating knowing that we have the pace to challenge for some really good results,” said Afansyev. “The team continues to do a fantastic job and I hope that in the next race I will be able to drive a clean race and collect some championship points.”
Craft-Bamboo Team CEO Richard Coleman praised Gené’s results, but was less than impressed by Comini’s antics on track which led to Oriola’s early retirement.
“A great result for Jordi Gene this weekend, with a double podium and Pepe Oriola has now moved into second place in the drivers’ championship,” summarised Coleman. “We have also closed the teams’ championship gap considerably, but again, it is very unfortunate to see that we are being forced into retirement by unnecessary and avoidable contact.”