Citroën’s Ma Qing Hua says he doesn’t know why Tom Coronel is upset with him after qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Portugal, with Coronel accusing the Chinese driver of blocking his qualifying lap.
Coronel accused Ma of intentionally blocking his fast lap in Q1, which led to the Dutchman failing to get through to Q2 and ending up in 15th on the grid for both of Sunday’s races.
The incident was investigate by the stewards after qualifying, but no further action was deemed to be necessary, with the explanation that “in Turn 16 and 17 Car #4 was far away from Car #33. When Car #4 reached Car #33 the last one was already turning into the chicane. The Stewards consider that Car #33 moved as soon as possible after the chicane to avoid impeding Car #4.”
Although Coronel remonstrated with Ma immediately after qualifying, calling the Citroën driver “stupid”, Ma shrugged off the incident.
“I didn’t really hear what he thought and said but we are not doing anything on purpose against him,” said Ma. “I was in my slower lap and on the back straight I was trying to see the mirror every second to make sure there is no car. It’s a street race and normally this kind of situation can happen and I had some traffic in Q1 as well.
“I know it could happen, especially in a street race, a narrow circuit with no place for you to let the car pass. But we are all professional drivers and we all do our best to avoid the problem.
“At the exit of the slow chicane after the back straight I tried to let him go as fast as I can and that’s it. I don’t know why he’s so upset. I guess the weather here is a bit hot and he overheats a bit, but I hope when the night is coming and everyone is cooling down I really don’t want to see this happen because we are all friends.”
Ma’s qualifying performance in Q2, where he was tenth fastest, put him in pole position on the reverse grid for race two – something which he revealed was part of the plan all along.
“At the start of Q2, we saw that it would be hard to finish in the top five and we switched to the objective of aiming for tenth place to make the most of the reversed grid for race two,” added Ma. “It is never easy to attain this objective, because the gaps are small and it isn’t easy to adapt one’s pace to obtain a precise time.
“My engineers gave my great advice and everything went like we wanted it to.”
Watch: Tom Coronel furious with Ma after qualifying block in Vila Real