Pepe Oriola targeting top five in the championship leaving China

Pepe Oriola says leaving Wuhan fifth in the championship would be perfect, after qualifying his Campos Racing Cupra TCR in the top ten today, despite crashing out on his final lap in Q2.

The Spanish driver will start fourth on the grid for Race 2 after setting the seventh fastest time. He was set to improve on his final run until he clipped the tyre barriers at the exit of the final corner, Turn 13, which spun his Cupra around and into the barriers.

“Seeing it now, it’s better this way as I had no more tyres left for Q3, so it’s better to P7 and be fourth on the grid on Race 2 and have a chance for a positive result,” said Oriola to TouringCarTimes.

“I tried, I was going to make the top five, but I just missed the apex and I was a little bit out. If this was Macau and it was the wall there, I’d have kept going, but the tyres absorbed the car and turned it around. It wasn’t a big crash, it was just the tyre touched the front wheel and spun it around.”

Oriola is now just ten points behind Jean-Karl Vernay and Norbert Michelisz, who are tied for fourth in the championship, and the Campos Racing driver hopes to overtake at least Michelisz, who starts both races from 22nd, this afternoon.

“If I can overtake some cars and score some good points, and if Jean-Karl (Vernay) has a bad race, I could get past both him and Norbert (Michelisz), but if I leave here in P5 that’ll be perfect,” he added.