Gianni Morbidelli rues conservative approach in wet qualifying

WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli is upset with himself for his first lap in the second part in qualifying at the Salzburgring, which resulted in the Italian qualifying down in fourth, now sixth following a two-place grid penalty.

The 48-year-old former Formula 1 driver had dominated the first two practice sessions in the WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR, but while the rain began to fall more and more heavily in Q2, he realised he’d missed his opportunity to fight for the front of the grid on Sunday.

“I took a decision to be more careful in the beginning, which was my mistake if you can call it a mistake,” said Morbidelli to TouringCarTimes.

“I’m a little bit sorry as I decided to be quite careful on the first lap when I went out with the wet tyres, but I realised that was the only moment to push, and I didn’t.

“I’d decided to make a lap just to be sure to have a lap time, but on the second lap it started to rain like hell, and it was impossible (to improve). I tried, I took some risks, but then I thought no way as I could crash the car and make it even worse.”

Morbidelli wasn’t comfortable with the track conditions in the rain, echoing the sentiment from his WestCoast Racing Harald Proczyk who was also uncomfortable driving in the rain.

“It’s a shame as I was quick in practice,” said Morbidelli. “If it’s wet like this it’ll be quite tricky, as there were some rivers forming on the circuit.”