Gabriele Tarquini sorry for Münnich incident

After contact with René Münnich’s SEAT in the first part of qualifying, Gabriele Tarquini has lost five positions for the incident and drops to tenth for the first race.

The Italian was the top qualifying Honda car after setting the fifth fastest time in Q2, and was due to start behind the three Chevrolets of Yvan Muller, Tom Chilton and Alex MacDowall and Pepe Oriola’s SEAT, but will now begin race one between the BMW of Darryl O’Young and the SEAT of Fernando Monje.

“I was on my fast lap, and he made a big mistake and went wide, and then came back to the normal line and he didn’t let me pass before the Parabolica,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes.

“I was on my fastest lap, and he had a moment on the middle of the Parabolica, and I’m sorry because he was in a (bad) situation as it’s not the best place to have a problem there.

“I’m sorry he spun, but if you are on the track and you make a mistake, normally you can look in the mirror you can let somebody past on their flying lap, as for him his lap was (over).”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s races where it’s forecast to rain, where Tarquini will now start 10th and sixth in the two races, Tarquini added:
“We’ve never run in the wet, it’s better that we measure up our performance in dry conditions. We knew we must work on the top speed and the engine and chassis, but it’s more or less what I expected.”