Photo: TCR Media

Davit Kajaia says Pepe Oriola caused his track limits infringement

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Davit Kajaia just missed out on a reversed-grid pole position, as he had all of his laps deleted in Q2 due to track limits infringements. The GE-Force driver was seen well beyond the white lines at Eau Rouge-Raidillon, which triggered a penalty by the stewards.

The Georgian admitted he had cut the track, but that was down to Craft-Bamboo’s Pepe Oriola being slower than him through the iconic corner. The Alfa Romeo driver lifted off and lost control of his car, which led him to cutting.

“My main goal was to be ninth or tenth in Q2, but I had some trouble with Oriola”, explained Kajaia to TouringCarTimes. “He treated qualifying like a race. At Eau Rouge he was a little slower than me, I had to lift off and lost the rear, which caused my track limits infringement. I didn’t do it to gain time, but to avoid an accident. On the Kemmel straight he was also weaving and this is not fair, I lost probably half a second there anyway. It was qualifying, not the race.”

The Georgian’s focus now switches to the race, as he left the Race 2 pole position to Volkswagen’s Maxime Potty. Unless penalties are issued and the results are changed by the stewards, he will have to work hard to come back through the field to score points, especially considering he will start from the back of the grid in the first heat due to an engine change penalty.

“Now my focus is on the race, in the first heat I will start from the back and at the moment I’m eleventh for Race 2, but the results are still provisional and things might change. I will also explain to the stewards what happened when I cut the track at Eau Rouge, I hope things can change.”

Kajaia also had a bit of a moment with James Nash, as the Brit accused him of having blocked him in the last sector during Q1. While taking the blame for the incident, the Georgian policeman says it was not intentional as he had no chance to see Nash due to the nature of the track.

“That was unfortunate, and I apologise for that. It was not intentional at all, I was at Blanchimont, I let another Craft-Bamboo car through and I just didn’t see James coming. I couldn’t do much, I tried to go to the inside and I believe I limited the damages, as he missed the apex. I repeat, I’m sorry about that, but it was not to do him harm.”