Gianni Morbidelli elated with unexpected first victory in WTCC

Italian driver Gianni Morbidelli is delighted to have taken his first win in the WTCC in his second season in the series, separated by an eight year absence, holding off the Honda Civic of Tiago Monteiro throughout the entire race to claim the Münnich Motorsport team’s third victory, and the first for the new TC1 Chevrolet Cruze.

From second on the grid, Morbidelli made a better start than the identical Chevrolet Cruze of Hugo Valente alongside, and led into the first corner in the ALL-INKL backed Cruze TC1, but from then on had to defend against Tiago Monteiro, who had been quick all weekend in the Honda Civic, with just a light tap at the end of the race almost unsettling the Chevrolet driver, but he held on for the win.

“I have to share this victory with the team and all the mechanics, they’ve worked really hard,” said Morbidelli to TouringCarTimes. “This is absolutely unexpected for us, as we have to be realistic, our performance up till now has not been enough to compete for the victory.

“The reversed grid certainly helped us, but I did a good start, I did a perfect race without any mistakes, so I must be proud of what I did today.”

Morbidelli was able to pull away down the main straight in the Chevrolet Cruze, which has greater straight-line speed than the Civic, but Monteiro was able to close up and harry the Italian through the final sector where the Civic has been strongest all weekend, but unfortunately, is not known for its passing points.

“I was faster than Tiago in the first part, but it was like elastic between me and him, in some corners he was faster than me and others I was faster than him, but the key was to not make any mistakes, as I was suffering with a problem with the brakes and here in the last two corners I was suffering with a lot of understeer which makes it difficult to turn in.

Morbidelli’s race two start was markedly better than his start in race one, where he dropped to 13th position, which the two-time Superstars International champion said was due to unfamiliarity with the car’s launch control system.

“In the start of the first race I tried to use the launch control, but if you’ve never tried that, you’re not able to use it correctly, so I decided to do it without it in the second race,” Morbidelli told TouringCarTimes.

“I said to my engineer I’m an old driver, I want to do it old style and use the clutch how I want and it was perfect. It’s true the start would be better with the launch control if we’d tested with it, but I had to take a risk that if I didn’t use it I could stall the engine or if I used it I might make a start like the first one where I was there for a quarter of an hour with the wheels spinning waving bye and shouting ‘wait for me’ to everyone.”

Morbidelli’s win has elevated him to seventh place in the drivers’ standings, ten points behind the top scoring Chevrolet so far of Hugo Valente and just one point clear of ROAL’s Tom Chilton.