Lorenzo Veglia says podium was possible, doesn’t understand penalty

Young Italian driver Lorenzo Veglia put on a storming show in race two as he joined the front-running battle in the second race in his Liqui Moly Team Engstler SEAT, but following an incident with Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Jordi Gené on lap eight at the chicane, the 18-year-old was handed a drive-through penalty for cutting the chicane.

Veglia took his eighth points finish of the season in race one with seventh, and in race two he seemed set for a podium after passing Gianni Morbidelli’s Honda on the first lap and was chasing down the Craft-Bamboo Lukoil SEAT of Jordi Gené, but a late braking manouvrre at the chicane saw him jump the corner and collide with the front of Gené’s car, causing damage to the Spaniard’s SEAT, forcing him to pit for a new tyre.

“I’m proud of the first race, but in the second race I don’t know what happened,” said Veglia to TouringCarTimes. “I don’t know why they gave me the drive-through as I jumped the chicane but I gave back the position, then the gearbox suddenly stopped me going for two or three seconds,” he added, referring to the mid-corner stoppage that Gené mentioned previously.

It’s likely the Italian was confused as to which car he had let back past, as it was Sergey Afanasyev in the identically liveried SEAT León that passed the pair of them while Gené headed back to the pits with a puncture.

“Otherwise, the good thing for this weekend I was fast, and I hope in Argentina it’ll be better…for sure I have a lot of chances to finish on the podium, I had the speed to do it today,” he added.

Veglia will miss the next round of the TCR International Series in Russia due to his compulsory exams.