Gabriele Tarquini caught out by slippery track conditions in FP1

Gabriele Tarquini accepted full blame for the crash that curtailed his running in opening free practice for the World Touring Car Cup round in Macau, explaining that he found the early track conditions highly treacherous.

Tarquini smashed the barriers at the narrow right-hander of Police just 13 minutes into FP1 at the Guia street track, bringing the session to an early end for the reigning WTCR champion.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes, Tarquini said he was caught out by the early state of the “green” street track.

“I locked the front tyres and was a little bit too fast for the conditions of the track,” said the 57-year-old touring car legend.

“The track was very slippery. It was not a good feeling from the front, but it was my mistake. I think they resurfaced the track last year but it’s more bumpy now. I did just two brakes [into Lisboa, the hardest braking point] but I also listen to the briefing with the other guys and everybody has a problem there with locking the rear tyres. It’s very bumpy this year.”

Tarquini’s BRC Hyundai mechanics are currently working flat out in Macau’s underground garage, where WTCR teams are based during the event, to repair the i30 N TCR in time for Free Practice 2 this afternoon.

“They are repairing the car and it will be ready for the second free practice,” Tarquini continued. “For sure it’s a loss of performance [for the rest of the weekend] but I mean, I still have a full Free Practice 2 just to try to recover my knowledge of the track. I need some good laps before qualifying tomorrow.”

Tarquini’s BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse team-mate Norbert Michelisz set the pace in FP1, narrowly edging out Cyan Racing’s Yvan Muller.