Pepe Oriola’s qualifying penalty cancelled, goes back to seventh

Pepe Oriola had his lap time disallowed during the second segment of qualifying at Estoril, Portugal.

The Craft-Bamboo Lukoil driver therefore had to clock another lap time, which earned him ninth and a front row for the reversed grid second race, but with his penalty cancelled the Spaniard will now have to start seventh in the first race and fourth in the second.

“I was forced to do another lap when my best lap was disallowed,” said the SEAT driver to TouringCarTimes. “It meant doing one more lap than anyone, which means more stress on the tyres and the brakes. It was obvious for me I could not go for a top five position, so I tried to score pole for the reversed grid and finished ninth, which was perfect.”

The Spaniard is effectively upset after he was brought further up the grid: “I had not done a perfect lap in my first attempt, I could probably have gone up to third or fourth, but once my time was deleted I had then done a perfect job. I had to do another lap for nothing; imagine if I get a puncture on the last lap, who is going to give me my extra lap back?”

Oriola’s disappointment comes from losing the front row in Race 2, which he believes would have had a good chance to win had he started second: “They should not have said I had my time disallowed. This is not good for a professional championship, you need to be consistent. I know everyone exceeded the track limits, but I don’t understand why I was reported and others weren’t. I am really upset.”

The stewards had received a report saying that both Oriola and Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini had committed a track limits infringement and deleted their times, which were restored after the stewards found out that all the drivers had done the same, thus restoring the deleted lap times in order to achieve consistency.

Oriola will therefore start from seventh in Race 1 and fourth in Race 2. Nothing changes for Comini, who will still start from fourth in the first race and seventh in the second heat. Race 2 pole sitter Loris Hezemans will now share the front row with Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s James Nash.