Mixed weekend for Gianni Morbidelli in Austria

Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli had a weekend of “ups and downs”, becoming the first driver to outqualify the dominant Citroën team all season, before being given a five place penalty for setting his best Q1 time under yellows. The Italian then had an unnoticeable race one finishing tenth, but was mixing it with Tom Coronel in the second race, fighting for fifth.

“It was a strange weekend,” said Morbidelli to TouringCarTimes. “We had the satisfaction in qualifying, then we had the penalty, then we were not very good in the first race, but it was much better in the second. It was all just up and down.

“We can be happy about the performance in qualifying, but less in respect of what happened in the races as we were not as fast as we were in qualifying. Maybe the set-up was good for qualifying on new tyres, but we were not good enough on used tyres, and it makes a big difference here as you start to lose grip on the front and gain understeer.”

“I was not competitive in the first race. I don’t know why, but I had a lot of understeer, especially in the front-left corner, the car seemed asymmetric, I don’t know if there was something wrong with a tyre. We had no chance to investigate because you only have ten minutes (to work on the car) before the second race.

“In the second race it was a little bit better, I had some nice overtaking so it was a little bit more fun. It’s difficult when you start in the middle of a group on a circuit like this. It’s not easy to overtake, but I scored some more points, which is important.”

In the second race, Tom Coronel slipped on the gravel which had been thrown onto the track at the chicane by Morbidelli’s team-mate René Münnich, which allowed Morbidelli through into fifth, but then the safety car was deployed while the gravel was swept away, at which point the two drivers were disputing who was fifth after fighting side-by-side down the back straight, with Coronel taking the position back.

“From my point of view, I was in front of him. He made a mistake at the chicane because it was dusty there, and I overtook him. Then at the hairpin he tried to overtake me again, but I was still in front, but then there was a safety car and he passed me…(the steward) will make the decision, it’s not for me to decide, but I think I was in front.”

The stewards took no action on Coronel, with the Dutch driver confirmed in fifth and Morbidelli sixth in the results of the second race.