Photo: WTCC

Gabriele Tarquini focussed on helping Michelisz and Honda on race day

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Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini says he’ll be working to help Norbert Michelisz in the drivers’ championship and score as many points as possible in the manufacturers’ championship for Honda on race day, admitting “he has nothing to lose”.

The Italian was fast on his WTCC return, a week after victory in the TCR International Series in nearby Zhejiang, setting the best time in the second part of qualifying ensuring that he made it to the top five shootout.

Tarquini then made a mistake on his final qualifying run, admitting he was having trouble finding pace straight away in the 2017-spec Honda Civic.

“For some reason I’m not very fast on my initial lap,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes.

“It’s probably me, as I’m not really on the pace of this car. In Free Practice 1, I was still discovering the car, and in Free Practice 2 I needed some time to get on the pace. I set my best lap on my final lap in Q1 without changing tyres, and again in Q2 on my fourth lap with no change of tyres, so Q3 was certainly going to be more difficult for me.

“It also started to rain when I left the pits, and I started to make a few mistakes, so I was pushing to recover, but as always when you push too hard, you make more even mistakes,” he added.

Tarquini has been recruited back in the Honda fold this weekend to replace Tiago Monteiro, and with fifth on the grid for the main race tomorrow, sixth for the opening race, the Italian is well-placed to assist the team in their two championship battles.

“The team want me to score as many points as possible for the manufacturers’, and to help Norbi (Michelisz) if he needs it,” said Tarquini. “I’m not in the fight for the championship, but I feel like I’ll be strong enough to help Norbi’s fight. He’s now fighting for the title, he’s not far from Thed (Björk) and he must do as well as possible in these two races.

“I can help by swapping positions if he needs it, especially in Race 1 as he starts behind me, so if during the race there’s a possibility I’ll swap positions. In the second race, I have nothing to lose, I start fifth, I’ll try to make a good start and try to be in the middle of the cars in front.”