Romeo Ferraris pair Liuzzi and Biagi still fear Morbidelli’s Audi
The two Romeo Ferraris Mercedes drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Thomas Biagi fear the Audi of Gianni Morbidelli will continue its championship eroding form seen in the last two race meetings tomorrow at Donington Park, despite the additional compensation measures imposed on the RS 5 this weekend.
Tonio Liuzzi secured second position on the grid, just 16-thousandths of a second behind the Roma Racing Mercedes Coupé of Luigi Ferrara, whilst Thomas Biagi was just under half a second back in the sister C63 AMG, with Gianni Morbidelli’s Audi RS 5 qualifying in fourth position on the grid, just 0.320 seconds behind the pole time.
“It was a shame that we couldn’t achieve pole position, but ‘Gigi’ (Luigi Ferrara) did an amazing last lap,” said Liuzzi to TouringCarTimes, “but we are happy, at the end of the day we have to think of our championship position and I’m ahead of my main two contenders (Thomas) Biagi and (Gianni) Morbidelli, but it will be a difficult race tomorrow, as I think Morbidelli is way too fast considering his weight penalty.”
Despite the buffer of Giovanni Berton’s Team Dinamic BMW starting third on the grid, Liuzzi believes Morbidelli will still be able to charge through during the race.
“The Audi is four-wheel drive and with this advantage it can pass everywhere in any corner, and it can make different lines because of the extra wheel-drive they have.
“At the end of the day we know it’s a fight between us and Audi for the championship, and we won’t give up until the end,” he added.
Liuzzi’s team-mate Thomas Biagi, currently leading the championship by a slender three points over Morbidelli with 20 points available for a win, echoed Liuzzi’s concerns.
“We were all very close together. The Audi, considering the extra 60kg of ballast due to the two victories plus the 40kg they have of handicap ballast still seems to be very quick, and for sure they’ll have an advantage in the race because they have less tyre decay, so they’ll be strong for sure. (Despite the straight line disadvantage) in the corners they are so impressive, so it won’t be easy, but the first five cars are all really close, so it should be a good show for the fans.”
Gianni Morbidelli, the only Audi in the field this weekend, however believes the latest balance of performance measures are too excessive. After four straight wins at Zolder and Portimao, the 45-year-old finds his car carrying an additional 100kg of compensation weight, a 15mm increase in ride height and a 6mm smaller restrictor this weekend in order to close the performance gap between the Audi and the rest of the field, with his car a second slower than his pole position time from 2012 in qualifying today.
“My car is carrying 100kg of weight and the ride height is now 30mm higher than the RS 5 road car, so it’s like an SUV,” he told TouringCarTimes.
Morbidelli also jested that the absence of the traditional British wet weather is an added frustration, which would immensely favour the extra traction of the four-wheel drive Audi.
Although the Audi was just a few tenths off of the pace of the Mercedes during qualifying, the Audi is clearly struggling in the speed traps. Morbidelli’s car was the slowest of the field in a straight line, over 15km/h slower than the fastest car, that of Biagi’s Mercedes C63 AMG.
