Gabriele Tarquini from last: “I was there to try and win the race”

Gabriele Tarquini charged from 21st on the grid up to third with two laps to go, with the Italian set to perhaps finish an unexpected second in the new Hyundai i30 N TCR, before a puncture stopped his attack with one lap to go.

The team had opted to change to the new specification of engine, which will be the 2018-spec engine when the car goes on sale next year to privateer teams, which dropped him from 13th to 21st on the grid.

“We changed the engine for testing reasons,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes. “This is the final version of the engine, we planned to receive it before China. We decided it was a good chance to test the engine as all customers will use this engine next year. It’s the same specification, in terms of performance it’s more-or-less the same (as the original engine).”

Tarquini was closing on Gordon Shedden’s Team WRT Volkswagen for second, when a puncture forced him to slow and return to the pits, which he put down to his performance, but didn’t rule out debris or the 50kg of weight he’s carrying.

“I was there to try and win the race on full attack to the end,” he said.

“There were some carbon fibre pieces at Turn 14 in the middle of the race. I know I was very aggressive, jumping on the kerbs. I enjoyed the race a lot as I worked to recover my position, so I may have been a bit too aggressive and got a puncture.

“We know the car is fast even with this incredible amount of weight we have. Our car now is slower than the other cars when accelerating, but it still good when braking, still good in the fast corners, but also the weight doesn’t help the tyre wear or the tyre’s life, but we are still quite pleased with the performance of the car.”