Hugo Valente calls Gabriele Tarquini “too old” after China clash (video)

Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente challenged Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini following the second race at Shanghai, accusing the Italian of being too old following an incident at the start which saw the Frenchman suffer broken suspension and retire from the race, with the two drivers then engaging in a heated verbal exchange.

23-year-old Valente had started from pole position courtesy of the reversed top ten grid, but was challenged by 53-year-old Tarquini into the first corner, with the rear-right wheel of Tarquini’s Civic making contact with the rear-left wheel of Valente’s Chevrolet RML Cruze as they went side-by-side, which seemed to be the catalyst for the failure.

Valente then went wide into Turn 2, believing the Italian had pushed him off, and soon spun out of the race with broken suspension into retirement.

Tarquini went on to finish second behind the Citroën of Yvan Muller, and on his way to the podium he was approached by Valente.

“Are we going to have a word?” said Valente to Tarquini.

“On what?,” responded Tarquini.

“For what? You pushed me three times.”

“No, you pushed me on the first corner,” said Tarquini.

“Gabriele, Gabriele, I pushed you where?”

The two then began talking over each other with Valente referring back to contact at Motegi two weeks’ ago, while Tarquini again denied any contact.

“Motegi what? I never touched you,” Tarquini retorted.

“You braked too late,” rounded off Valente. “You’re way too old, you’re too old, you made a good race, but…”

“I’m tool old huh? And you are too young,” interjected Tarquini.

“You hit me twice, you can’t do this,” responded Valente while gesturing with his hand.

A now agitated Tarquini shouted back “Put your hand down!” before the two began to curse at each other as Valente walked away and Tarquini was guided to the podium ceremony.

The stewards investigated the contact after the race and deemed it a racing incident.