Stefano Comini labelled the decision not to reinstate his best time in Saturday’s TCR Europe qualifying session as ‘stupid’ after it led to the Swiss racer having to start both of the weekend’s races from 11th on the grid.
Comini was one of four drivers to initially have their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits on Saturday, but the Autodis Racing by THX driver did not get his best lap reinstated, unlike Dániel Nagy, Dušan Borković and Mikel Azcona.
That led to the Honda driver having to start both races from 11th, meaning he missed out on the reverse grid pole position which had originally been awarded to him after the session ended.
Although Comini recovered to finish fourth in both races, he was furious with the decision to take away a strong starting position in race two.
“The main point of the weekend for us is this bullshit with track limits in qualifying that penalised us for the whole weekend,” said Comini to TouringCars.Net. “They gave back lap times [to the other drivers] that were cancelled, and then they made the announcement one hour before the race.
“With the rules you can do nothing one hour before the race. My time was cancelled too, and they didn’t give me back my best time, which was two tenths faster.
“I would have started on pole position today, and yesterday I would have started from tenth or something like this. If we had started in second today, what would have happened? It’s bullshit.
“All the time there is contact in the races and they do nothing. I want to play the race on the track, not outside – this is bullshit!
“They need to stop it. They have someone in the stewards who cannot do his job. It was a race to avoid the contact with the tyre [stacks] on the corners – it was so stupid.
“I love this track and the people here, but the organisation of the track is not for car racing, I’m sorry. It makes no sense.
“It’s amazing to see so many people and fans here, as this is really helpful for motorsport and for us to be in the paddock, but on the race track it was absolutely stupid.”
Comini is hoping to qualify inside the top ten at his home race in Monza in just over a month’s time, where he hopes to be able to fight at the front.
“In Monza we will have a show in the paddock organised by Race Republic with the help from Autodis and THX Racing, and it is my home race and I’m there to win.
“Monza is not the best race track for the Honda this year but in the race I am quite good. It is possible that we might not do very well in qualifying, though.
“I hope to be in the top ten next time, because now I am really pissed off. I hope it will be different and that it will be a race car event and not an event for the lawyers… I want to play on the track, not outside it!”