Marc Basseng shines on his WTCC debut at Monza

Marc Basseng has had a strong World Touring Car Championship debut at Monza, qualifying in eighth place and having good battles with former champion Gabriele Tarquini in both races, taking a credible fourth place in the second race.

The reigning FIA GT1 World Champion is in his first season in the WTCC driving the #38 Münnich Motorsport SEAT León WTCC alongside team-mates René Münnich and Rob Huff, and was the top placed SEAT in qualifying after Huff’s coming-together with Wiechers-Sport’s Fredy Barth in the session.

With an all-new team and new to the Championship, the German admits today’s results were quite a surprise.

“100% this is the result I was never ever expecting,” said Basseng to TouringCarTimes.

“We did six days of testing, which compared to all the experience the other teams and drivers have is nothing. So before I was thinking maybe Q2, twelfth, tenth something like that, but after the Free Practice I thought maybe the top twenty! But then in qualifying, we caught up and after three sets of new tyres I got quicker and quicker and finished P8; I then had second place for the second race and finished fourth really close to the podium, I think I can be satisfied.”

Of the three drivers in the team, neither Basseng or Huff are entered into the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy on account of their experience, with Huff having been a works Chevrolet driver since the beginning and Basseng after winning the GT1 World Championship last year with Münnich Motorsport in a Mercedes SLS.

“It’s true that Rob and I are not in the independents’ trophy, but we’re 100% a private team, everything is paid by ALL-INKL.COM and Rob definitely is our No.1 driver, to be the quickest SEAT driver and catch as many points and possible, and against the RML Chevys there’s no chance to win this year.

“For us it is a learning year, we want to get as many points as possible, we want do as a few mistakes as possible and after Macau then we will see what we achieved over the season.”

In race one, Basseng was fighting hard with Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda in the early stages, but then dropped back after a mistake at the Lesmos. A drive-through penalty for a pre-race procedure infraction dropped him to the back of the pack, but in race two Basseng fought hard against Tarquini again, catching the Italian and was fighting for the final place on the podium right up until the chequered flag.

The battle was strongest at Ascari, but Tarquini was able to hold position and lead through into the Parabolica and take the flag just 0.087 seconds ahead of Basseng.

“I’m sure it was his purpose to be slow on the exit of Ascari to block me so that I don’t have the tow maybe, but to find against him, I’m not a legend, I’m just 35 years old and had a good race season last year, and he’s known for 30 years in touring cars, so that was a really nice experience.

“In the end I’m happy to keep the car just on the track and keep it on position it was an achievement. The conditions were really really bad, I’ve never had such bad rain conditions like today.”