Craft-Bamboo’s Pepe Oriola and Hugo Valente confused and disappointed with qualifying

Craft-Bamboo Racing pair Hugo Valente and Pepe Oriola qualified down in eighth and ninth for the first race of the 2017 TCR International Series season in Georgia, with James Nash just missing out on the top ten in 11th, with all three struggling to understand their lack of pace.

Although the Alfa Romeo on pole position is likely a combination of local knowledge and the light weight of the car, which is running at -20kg to base weight and with a 10mm reduction in ride height, the different in speed to Zele Racing’s SEAT and their driver Ferenc Ficza is the main point of confusion for the UK-Hong Kong squad.

“We don’t understand why the Alfa is so far ahead,” said Oriola to TouringCarTimes. “I’m not saying (Davit Kajaia’s) not a great driver, but he’s never been so far ahead with such a good gap. I don’t know if it’s the ballast or if he really knows the circuit, but we’ve had two hours testing and time to set up the car.

“I’m a little more worried about the pace of Ficza, because he’s also with the SEAT and he’s seven-tenths faster than me. We know the Hondas are a little better at these kinds of tracks, and Jean-Karl (Vernay, WRT Volkswagen) being there makes sense as he’s in the Volkswagen and it has 20kg less, so everything is OK except the fact that Ficza is in P3.”

New team-mate Hugo Valente was equally disappointed, despite being the fastest of the three in qualifying.

“I think the whole team is disappointed,” said Valente to TouringCarTimes.

“I don’t know how (Ferenc) Ficza is doing the time he’s doing, it’s a mystery. He’s six tenths faster than me in the first sector, so we have to do something. I’m also surprised to be in front of James and Pepe as my brakes were a nightmare, I was locking up everywhere, so it was a very bad qualifying for me.

“It should be fun tomorrow I think, as in Race 2, I have Pepe, Comini, Morbidelli all around me, so it’ll be a fun Race 2 for sure.”