Pepe Oriola eyes strong reversed grid position in Macau

Honda driver Pepe Oriola is back behind the wheel for the final race weekend of the 2025 FIA TCR World Tour season at Macau, his first as team manager of the GOAT Racing team.

“I felt very good, I’m happy. Macau is a race track where you build confidence little by little,” Oriola told TouringCarTimes.

The Spaniard managed a top ten result in the first free practice session of the day, but had trouble in the second session.

“In the second free practice we put new tyres on, but we had braking issues, so I went straight in Lisboa,” explained the Spaniard. “Still, with our cars we are having to work extra, especially since China, our rivals’ performance has improved while the case is not the same for us.”

Oriola is not targeting any specific result, but rather enjoy one more time behind the wheel of a racing car, with an eye on reverse grid to get a good result.

“I want to have fun here, see if tomorrow I can have a clean lap, to see if I can get into the top ten for the reverse grid,” said Oriola.

“From the first lap I felt competitive, but I didn’t want to crash the car, we have few spares. We can’t take may risks so, if we are going to risk, we will do it tomorrow in the qualifying, and in the races if we start ahead.”

His role as team manager for GOAT Racing has also had an impact on how Oriola faces this challenge, but the Spaniard feels no pressure.

“I’m not racing to score a good result so that I can go for a seat for next season, I feel stable in my position as team manager, so I’m looking to have fun, although I felt the pressure to go faster with new tyres, so the racing driver feeling is always there,” the Honda driver concluded.