Alex MacDowall loses ground after crash with Tarquini

Alex MacDowall had a less than ideal weekend at Morocco, with a DNF in the second race after he was involved in a collision with Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda, following on from being collected in the morning warm-up by Tom Boardman’s broken SEAT.

MacDowall had finished in sixth place in race one, and was chasing the Italian driver in the Honda for sixth again in the reversed grid second race, before Tarquini’s Honda bounced over the kerbs at Turn 13 and collected MacDowall’s Chevrolet on the exit.

“He just lost it into the last chicane. He hit the kerb but it wasn’t until the last exit kerb that he hit and got out of shape when I’m flat on it to the left,” said MacDowall to TouringCarTimes. “He kind of caught it again, but all of a sudden he went right and then it violently flicked to the left as he overcorrected and just went straight into me.”

MacDowall’s best showing during the weekend was third fastest in the second practice session behind the two RML Chevrolets, but sixth on the grid for race one and a bad start from fifth for race two meant the promise of the weekend was never realised.

“From the speed that we showed in FP2, we just went downhill to be honest. It’s quite strange,” said MacDowall.

“In race one we didn’t make any places up, we started sixth and finished sixth, but if we’d qualified higher we’d probably have finished where we qualified.

“Then in race two I just had a rubbish start. It’s a shame as we’d worked hard on them…and then for some reason in the race it just bogged down and it was goodbye.”

“We’re a step ahead from last year, and every track we’ve been to we’ve been quicker, so we’re in better shape to challenge. My goal is to end up in the top three in the Championship, it’s going to be pretty tough, but you’ve got to believe in it to do it.”