Gabriele Tarquini hails “fantastic” weekend in Morocco
Gabriele Tarquini leaves Morocco with the lead of the drivers’ standings in the all-new World Touring Car Cup after a successful weekend, with two victories in the new three-race format in the BRC Racing Team Hyundai i30 N TCR.
The Italian got the jump on the rival YMR Hyundai of Thed Björk on Saturday to win Race 1 from second on the grid, and then followed that up with pole position on Sunday, which he was able to convert into another victory in Race 3.
Contact at the start of Race 2 with old rival Yvan Muller meant the 56-year-old retired with damage, meaning Tarquini’s points advantage is not as much as it could have been, with him leading the points by just seven over last year’s WTCC drivers’ champion Thed Björk.
“It was a fantastic first weekend, could not be better,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes.
“To score pole position this morning was not easy, as Yvan (Muller) set a fantastic lap, and it’s very easy here to make mistakes, but I did a perfect lap.”
Tarquini said it took some time to find his feet in Marrakech, after he was beaten to pole position by Björk on Saturday, with the Swede being the Hyundai driver on point up until yesterday’s first race.
“Björk was always very consistent in the race, even if he didn’t really know the car well. But he probably had an advantage yesterday to be straight on the pace as he raced here last year. I had some trouble yesterday, but after the race I was there and it was much better.”
Tarquini was also credited with the fastest lap of the weekend, which concerned him slightly due to the continued compensation weight system which comes into effect from Race 3.
“Yesterday I tried to be safe on the restart, but Björk attacked me at the hairpin so today I was not thinking about best lap times or whatever. I tried to do my best and push, OK, we might get some compensation weight, but you never know, this is a very special track and we don’t know what our pace will be like at a normal track like Budapest.”
