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Honda disappointed after unlucky weekend

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The works Castrol Honda World Touring Car team had a difficult weekend in Beijing. Despite some very strong performances during the weekend, including Tiago Monteiro being quickest in the first practice sessions held at the twisty Chinese track, the team only collected five points with Gabriele Tarquini, with four points earned for second in qualifying and one for tenth in Race 2.

The Italian was overtaken by former team-mate Yvan Muller at the start of Race 1, but held on to third and even put pressure on the Citroën driver before hitting debris on the track and retiring due to the subsequent damage.

Monteiro also retired from the race, leaving the crew with a lot of work to do in the 15-minutes window allowed for repairs. The Portuguese driver effectively had to start from the back of the grid, whereas Tarquini was able to start from ninth. The Italian slipped down to tenth and was not able to overtake due to the twisty nature of the track.

A disappointed Tarquini commented:“I had the wrong start strategy for Race 1 and then in the end hit something on the track and got the puncture. For Race 2 it was simply impossible to overtake.”

Monteiro set his goals on finishing Race 2 after damaging his Civic in the first heat:”The suspension damage from Race 1 made the car less than perfect so it was important for me to finish the race. Our race results did not reflect the good performance we had in practice but that’s racing! At least I am still 4th in the Driver’s Championship points table.”

Alessandro Mariani, JAS Motorsport team manager, is disappointed as well but tries to see the positive side of the weekend:“Because of circumstances on track we had a bad weekend. Tiago missed his chance in Q2, Gabriele didn’t make a good start in Race 1 and it is very difficult to overtake on this tight circuit. On the positive side we did a good job on improving the car and the pace was good.”

More satisfying results came from Norbert Michelisz, who claimed a sixth and a fifth in Beijing. The Hungarian said:”I made a good start in the second race but in the end it was impossible to keep López behind but I did the maximum to secure 5th place for Honda and Zengő Motorsport.”

The World Touring Car Championship will now head to Shanghai for the tenth event of the season.