New Honda updates bring pole position in second race

A few updates after the first round at Monza two weeks ago have helped Honda take their first pole position at Marrakech, with Tarquini grabbing pole ahead of all five of the Chevrolets, with more to come.

Tarquini grabbed pole with a time of 1:44.358, just under half a tenth of a second quicker than the Chevrolet of James Nash, and thanks the team for the new improvements which have turned the car around in just a short time.

“The guys at home despite the small gap between races did a fantastic job and made a change to the engine, we improved a little bit of top speed, and we recovered a bit of the gap between Chevrolet and us,” said Tarquini.

“It was very easy to jump over the kerbs, very easy to manage the brakes, very easy to drive and it was a good grid position because I was behind the group of Chevrolets and used their speed on the straight, I made a very good lap and the present was pole,” he added.

Team Principal Alessandro Mariani had mixed feelings after the session, delighted with the pole but problems for Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz will see the other two Hondas start 14th and 17th on race day.

“I’m happy and not happy,” said Mariani to TouringCarTimes. “I’m happy as I didn’t expect we’d improve so much from Monza considering the characteristics of the track with a lot of straights, but we made an improvement on the car on the intake system and Gabriele drove magnificently, unfortunately we lost Tiago’s car and also Michelisz had a problem with the shock-absorber damper, so I’m not happy because we couldn’t have three cars in the top ten which is my goal.”

Monteiro went out in Q1 after clipping the wall which caused a short red flag stoppage. Monteiro’s time was good enough for 14th, just one spot better than he achieved last time out at Monza.

“It was a big mistake on my part,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes. “I made a driving mistake pushing a bit too hard, lost the rear a little bit and touched the kerb and it threw me to the other side. I’m very upset because it was a missed opportunity for sure, we had a very quick car, I was good this morning so I thought I really could do something.

“We’ve done a great job compared to Monza, we knew there was some new updates but we didn’t know how much it was going to help, the chassis was fantastic, great braking, great car, and a bit better engine…it’s not there yet, we’re not going to be on pole every weekend as we’re still lacking some power, but it’s a really great step, and congratulations to Gabriele and to the team.”