Jordi Gené unhappy with “unusual” incidents which scuppered good race two result

Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver Jordi Gené picked up a single point in race two at the Salzburgring after crossing the line tenth, in a race which saw him held up twice by cars losing drive right in front of him at the chicane.

The Spanish driver just missed out on the podium in race one after Andrea Belicchi’s Target SEAT drove past him on the back straight with two laps to go, while in race two, Gené lost a spot to team-mate Pepe Oriola at the start at the first chicane following contact with Stefano Comini’s Target SEAT, and then he was hit by Lorenzo Veglia’s Engstler SEAT on lap eight, which saw damage to the front-left followed by a puncture, forcing him to pit and rejoin the race some way behind the pack.

“I was a bit unlucky as first Comini was in neutral in the exit of the chicane, he almost stopped and I hit him and lost a position to Pepe,” said Gené to TouringCarTimes. “After that Veglia outbraked himself, and when he came back on he hit me and also stopped in the middle of the chicane, and then my front-left tyre was punctured so there was no chance to do anything in the second race.”

In the first race, Gené made an opportunistic pass on team-mate Pepe Oriola and WestCoast Racing Honda driver Gianni Morbidelli when the two came together at the final corner, but eventually lost the podium spot to Belicchi.

“I could stay with Pepe and Gianni and I was chasing for a mistake and it paid off…(but) my car’s a bit heavy, so it’s not so quick uphill, so (Belicchi) managed to get a good slipstream and get all the way past, but the first race was still a positive result, the second race was not so good, I didn’t expect to be P10.

“There were too many impacts in unusual places, to get someone stopping in front of you in the middle of the corner was very unusual.”