Pepe Oriola content with front row after race director wipes out his best lap

Championship leader Pepe Oriola was content to be starting second on the grid in Russia alongside his title rival Stefano Comini, after the stewards erased the Spaniard’s best lap during the session after the Craft-Bamboo Racing SEAT driver was deemed guilty of exceeding the track limits.

With ten minutes for Q2 and a lap taking almost two-and-a-half minutes, there was only the opportunity to make one series of laps with no stops in the session, and when Oriola went wide at both Turns 2 and 18, the race director saw fit to delete the SEAT driver’s lap, meaning the 21-year-old had to set another lap on the same set of Michelin tyres, which turned out to be good enough to snare him a spot on the front row for Sunday.

“I don’t feel particularly upset to have not taken the pole after being the fastest in free practices and Q1,” he said. “It just happened that in Q2, my first fast lap was disallowed because I ran too wide, although that lap would not mean the pole. Then, I was a little bit wide in my second attempt
as well, and by then my tyres lost performance.

“Still, the first row is a good position to start from and we’ll see what happens. It’s going to be a long and tough race and I’ll approach it thinking about the championship and trying to avoid doing any crazy things.”