Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli admits that he is “proud” with his unexpected first victory in the World Touring Car Championship, after holding off Honda’s Tiago Monteiro in race two at the Hungaroring.
Morbidelli started from the front row for the second race of the day at the Hungaroring and immediately took the lead, outdragging poleman Hugo Valente to the first corner. From there the Italian had to withstand heavy race-long pressure from Monteiro, who was never more than half a second adrift of the Chevrolet driver.
“Apparently it’s easy – but it was not like that,” said Morbidelli after his maiden WTCC win. “Honestly I didn’t make any mistakes – I was very focussed on that. I never thought [we could] finish first because if we see what happened in the other races the Citroën was much faster than every other car, so I expected to see them in my mirrors.”
Morbidelli dedicated the win to his Münnich Motorsport team, with victory marking the German outfit’s third in the series since joining at the start of 2013.
“I have to say that I’m very proud and very happy,” added the 46-year-old. “I am still at a loss of words to relay to my fans, to the media, to all the WTCC paddock how happy I am for this amazing victory.
“I want to dedicate this win to the team – to René Münnich and to all the guys that work very hard. We did no testing, we were ready to start the season just one week before the championship. We are at the beginning but for sure this win will give us the motivation to continue pushing.”
Morbidelli, who has a new race engineer this weekend, also admits that he did not expect to be challenging for a win in Hungary, having struggled with the set-up of his new TC1 Cruze on Saturday. The Italian was also grateful to Tom Coronel who, by finishing in fourth, prevented a charge through the field from the faster Citroën Racing drivers.
“Hungary has been quite a weekend, as we struggled in practice with massive understeer and even if I knew I’d started race two from the front row I knew my odds of going all the way and snapping the Citroën Racing winning streak were quite small,” admitted Morbidelli. “But one has to fight to make his mark in this industry: I was willing to deliver for all those that have helped me to make this season happen and couldn’t go down without fighting.
“I reached deep into all my past experience to keep Tiago’s Honda at bay, and it wasn’t a stroll but as time went by I was still ahead. I even managed to keep the lead when we had a near miss with a few corners to go. And by the way having Tom Coronel’s Cruze working miracles to keep behind the Citroën drivers was another boost for my Cruze to post this awesome win…
“I am aware that race two is not the benchmark for the WTCC performance – on Saturdays we’ll have to struggle next week, but this win gave us a shot of confidence to work all together to make up ground in Qualifying and race one, as well.”