Gianni Morbidelli happy with Civic ‘Step 2’ progress

Gianni Morbidelli was quickest in the first Free Practice session at Buriram, Thailand. The WestCoast Racing driver found that many of the problems he suffered from yesterday were solved, and the team are working to do even more.

“We made a good step forward compared to yesterday,” admitted the Italian to TouringCarTimes. “This is a new car and I think we are getting on top of the new front suspension system, which is quite different compared to the previous version of the car. We worked according to a precise schedule and had no issues, so I am happy.”

The Honda driver thinks there is still more performance to find in the Civic: “I think we can be optimistic and look for more improvements in Free Practice 2. The car is responding very well to the changes we make and hopefully that will translate in more speed during the weekend. Like I said yesterday, the engine still feels a bit lazy at high revs, but it is a new unit and we need to work on that.”

Morbidelli was over half a second quicker than his nearest rival, Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola.