Photo: WTCR Media

Pepe Oriola punished for Macau Race 2 incident with Ehrlacher

Campos Racing’s Pepe Oriola has been penalised by the stewards for the crash at the start of lap one at Macau, which caused a pile-up at the famous Lisboa corner.

The Spaniard was found guilty of making contact with the Honda of Yann Ehrlacher, which pushed Oriola into a spin as he collected the wall, and spun across the field causing a track block which took out the WRT Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay, and both of the BRC Racing Team Hyundais.

“I was coming down his inside and he kept moving over on me and I had nowhere to go,” said Oriola to TouringCarTimes, not accepting fault for the incident.

“There was maybe space for a car if I was one more meter on the left, but he was far too close,” said Ehrlacher to TouringCarTimes.

“My steering was straight, the car was going straight, so he just thought I’d be a pussy and open the door, but we are here to race, I’m not going to indicate and just let him through and say OK Pepe, off you go, that’s not racing.”

Oriola was officially reprimanded for the incident.