Gianni Morbidelli hails ‘great fight’ on his way to Portugal win

Gianni Morbidelli won the first race today at Estoril, Portugal. After the WestCoast Racing took the lead at the start, pole sitter Mat’o Homola was able to put the nose of his B3 Racing SEAT ahead of Morbidelli’s Honda, which triggered a long fight the Italian driver enjoyed.

“I had fun, although standing on the podium was even better,” joked Morbidelli. “I tried to be very careful in the beginning of the race, because I knew how important it was to preserve the tyres on this track in particular, and that was the key (to winning). I said to myself that if I finished second it would be okay, but I hoped for (Mat’o) Homola’s tyres to fade midway through the race, and that is what happened.”

Morbidelli acknowledged there is a difference in straight line speed between the Honda and the SEAT, but the situation balanced itself through the corners: “He (Homola) was much quicker than me on the straight, the difference was huge, but I was good under braking and in the slower corners. I think he started to feel the pressure and he made some small mistakes, so I was able to try and overtake.”

The Italian praised the work done by WestCoast Racing after a power steering problem left him worried over the race distance: “There’s nothing better than winning a race, so I’m happy for myself and the team, we were worried about a power steering issue but again my great team was able to handle the situation and everything was fine.”

Morbidelli also praised Homola’s good defensive drive: “He did a good job defending, of course he tried to keep the position, I found a spot to pass him and again we had a great fight, which is what the fans want to see.”

Despite the enjoyable fight, the Italian believes his Slovakian rival should probably have let him through earlier to preserve his podium place: “I was in touch with the engineer and he told me about the gap between me and Jean-Karl (Vernay). Of course when you are in a battle you know you can lose time, and you need to be careful not to lose your position while you try to overtake. Homola was closing the door all the time, and we both lost ground. It is always a delicate situation, but sometimes it’s also a matter of luck, you need to be ready at the right moment and hope for the guy in front of you to make a mistake. The difference here is not huge, it’s not a 1.5s gap, so you need luck as well to be able to pass.”

Morbidelli’s win means he leads the standings equal on points with Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola, with the Spanish driver only collecting four points in the first race.