Gabriele Tarquini has explained his passing move for the lead of the Opening Race at FIA WTCC Race of Qatar yesterday.
LADA driver Tarquini, WTCC champion in 2009, had trailed Tom Chilton at the Losail International Circuit but pounced shortly after the restart to claim his second win of 2016 and the 22nd of his World Touring Car Championship career.
“My car was very good especially on the first few laps and I discovered this just after the start,” the Italian revealed. “Unfortunately, I was on the dirty part on the inside and was not able to do a very good start. But on the first few corners I felt my car was working very good and probably better than Tom’s [Chilton]. On the restart I got the chance. I was completely on the outside, he went a little too long and I used my chance and this was key for the victory because on this track, especially with the sand around the kerbs, it’s very, very difficult to follow another car. After it was quite an easy race. My pace was very good and on a certain point I got an eight-second advantage.”
Chilton said: “I was struggling through the first couple of corners because my tyres weren’t quite ready. I managed to push just a little bit more and it started to come to me. But then there was a red flag. On the restart I was weaving, I pulled away from Gabriele but I had so much understeer at the last corner to start the lap and when I came out of it I was thinking ‘this is good, this is good’ but then Gabriele was right on my bumper. I knew it would be tough for half a lap but he managed to get past me without hitting me, which was great.”