Gabriele Tarquini: “We achieved our target this weekend”

Hyundai’s Gabriele Tarquini has hailed the new Hyundai i30 N TCR after a perfect performance in Race 1 at Zhejiang, driving from 14th to first to secure victory on both his and the car’s TCR International Series debut.

The Italian was able to make the most of a collision ahead of him between team-mate Alain Menu and Comtoyou Racing’s Denis Dupont to make up most of his gains on the opening lap, before picking his way past the Craft-Bamboo SEATs, Gianni Morbidelli’s WestCoast Volkswagen and the Team WRT Volkswagens of Rob Huff and Jean-Karl Vernay to take victory for the South Korean manufacturer.

The team were dealt an unexpected challenge when it was confirmed that their temporary homologation meant they were not eligible for points, which ruled them out of qualifying in the top 12.

“It was not easy to think that we could win the race when we got the position we did,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes. “My start wasn’t great, I think Alain had a better start than me, but for that reason he had a problem, and luckily it was far away from me. I finished my first lap in sixth position, which was the key to the win.

“After this my car was uncatchable. Our braking, speed, traction, the change in direction was great. I had a different class of car, it was not difficult to fight with the others, and also some drivers chose not to fight with me as they were fighting for the title, so it wasn’t a real fight.

“Our target was to win the race, which we achieved. We had some difficulty when the organisers made us start 13th and 14th.”

The Hyundai i30s were then hit with a heavy Balance of Performance adjustment between races, with Tarquini and Menu given 40kg of success ballast and made to reduce their engine power to 95%, but the two still managed to finish fourth and sixth in the second race.

The 2009 world champion admitted the BoP adjustment was called for, and that it was handled in the right way.

“It’s always very good to slow down a fast car, than it is for the championship to give you speed back,” he said. “We knew the rules, and in the second race it was difficult, but the car was still good and if I’d been further up the grid we could possibly have still fought for the win.”