Pepe Oriola blames small mistake for missed testing lead

Pepe Oriola finished today’s testing session in second behind Craft-Bamboo Lukoil team-mate Jordi Gené in Buriram, Thailand.

The Spaniard was in the lead for most of the session, until his compatriot managed to go faster than him on new tyres. “I made a small mistake at Turn 1,” confessed Oriola to TouringCarTimes. “To be honest I am still happy with the way things went, I know we are competitive.”

Talking about Gené’s performance, Oriola says his team-mate is well-equipped to mount a challenge on him: “It’s nothing new, Jordi is a great driver. He spent a few laps behind me towards the end of the session, I could see he was quick. I still think I would have been quicker without that mistake, but it doesn’t matter today so I’ll let it go. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into the racing weekend.”

Oriola lost the lead of the championship in Singapore, handing it to Stefano Comini, and is now 11 points shy of the Target Competition driver.