Power steering issue leaves Gianni Morbidelli worried for race day

Gianni Morbidelli put his WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR on the front row for the first race at Estoril, Portugal. The Italian continues to suffer from power steering issues, which is a concern for him, but the performance of his Honda left him delighted.

“I am very happy because I was not here on Wednesday for the test,” said the Italian. “We also lost a session due to the weather, so it didn’t help me to get some laps in and I had a very short time today.”

Looking ahead at the races, the WestCoast Racing driver is adamant the power steering issue must be solved for tomorrow: “I struggled a lot with power steering, unfortunately we have that problem and I am quite worried. Performance-wise it was great, I didn’t expect to be so quick, and I am happy I scored some points for the championship. The race will be quite hard because this is a particular track, it is very hard on the tyres. First of all, though, we need to solve the power steering issue, that’s our focus at the moment. I have a great team behind me and I’m sure they will do their best to solve it.”

Gianni Morbidelli also commented on the close gaps between the different car models, which he believes are in the DNA of the series: “Close racing is the nature of TCR, that is what we want. It’s good because there is good balance, and also the drivers’ level is high. I know the race will be quite different, more or less everyone is able to do a good job on new tyres for one lap, but in the race everything will change because you have to think about tyres and brakes, and on top of that you are in the middle of battles.”

Morbidelli will start from second in Race 1 and will line up ninth in the second race due to the reversed grid.