Gianni Morbidelli not taking win for granted

Gianni Morbidelli took pole position in style at Monza, Italy. The Honda Civic TCR was expected to be the car to beat, but the Italian put in a very strong lap, so much that one effort was enough for him to be sure he had pole position.

“I had a perfect car,” admitted Morbidelli. “I have to thank WestCoast Racing because they work very hard to give me such an amazing machine. We were quick here ever since we tested the car before the season, so we already had a good base set up from winter. I was able to do a perfect lap, and I must say the performance is very good.”

Morbidelli aborted the second lap, in which he looked like he could break the 2-minutes barrier: “I don’t know if I could have been quicker than I have been, but to be honest I was really on my limit. When you are in qualifying you always try your best, so when I saw I had a bit of a moment at Ascari, and I had been told my lap was likely to be enough for pole position, I just went back to the pits to save the car. There was no point taking the risk.”

Talking about the race, the Italian does not think it will be easy to win: “It will be different from Shanghai, because in China I had René (Munnich) and Kevin (Gleason) behind me, whereas now Stefano Comini and Pepe Oriola will be very near. I hope we can have a good and clean fight, which we did not have in Portimao, so hopefully this time it will be better.”

The WestCoast Racing driver is concerned about the start and the first corner, where carnage is not rare: “We are not as good as SEAT off the line normally, so I’m not taking anything for granted. The first corner here can also be quite messy, so I will have to watch out and try to get the most out of this race.”

The first race will start at 12.35 local time.