Oschersleben Race Report
9 July 2017
Rounds 13 & 14 – Oschersleben – 8 / 9 July 2017
RACE REPORT
Gianni Morbidelli scores a clean sweep in Germany
The Italian wins all as Jean-Karl Vernay retakes the point lead
Gianni Morbidelli is back in anger after so many months of disappointment and frustration.
The Italian driver had not been able to win a race since April 2016 at Estoril, but today he reclaimed his place amongst the leading players of the TCR International Series in a very authoritative way.
In fact, he won both races at Oschersleben, scoring the maximum tally of points at stake (55, including 5 for the pole position) and giving WestCoast Racing its first victories since the Swedish team switched to the Volkswagen Golf.
Morbidelli’s win in Race 2 was a real masterpiece, as he overtook Mat’o Homola’s Opel Astra only two hundreds metres from the finish line. No wonder that while he was overjoyed, Homola felt bitter for having lost a great opportunity to score Opel’s maiden win in the series.
The two German races proved to be ill-fated for some of the title contenders. M1RA’s Attila Tassi and Roberto Colciago, first and second in the standings before Oschersleben, left Germany without scoring, while Pepe Oriola pocketed only one miserable point in yesterday’s qualifying.
This all helped Vernay to retake the lead in the overall classification, one point ahead of Tassi; Colciago has slipped to third, with a gap of eight points, while Stefano Comini (sixth and fifth in the two races), is now only one further point adrift in fourth place. Oriola remains fifth, 43 points behind the leader.
The TCR International Series will resume after the summer break at Buriram’s Chang International Circuit, Thailand, on September 2 and 3.
Race 1 – Morbidelli takes an authoritative win
Gianni Morbidelli converted his pole position into an authoritative and long awaited victory for himself and the WestCoast Racing team. The Italian driver made a perfect start and led from lights to flag, even in spite of the safety car intervention after an incident between Tassi and Vernay.
Daniel Lloyd claimed his first podium finish with a brilliant second place, while Rob Huff defended his third position from the assaults of James Nash.
Once again Morbidelli’s young teammate Giacomo Altoè proved consistent in finishing fifth, while Stefano Comini recovered from 17th on the grid to 6th at the chequered flag. A result that might prove crucial in the title fight, considering that none of the top-three drivers in the standings – Tassi, Roberto Colciago and Vernay – scored points.
It was an eventful race, with a number of contacts (that resulted in penalties for Vernay and Oriola), flat tyres and even a black flag to Stian Paulsen for repeatedly infringing the track limits.
Key facts
Grid – Vervisch was demoted (from 16th) to the back of the grid, due to an engine change
Start – Morbidelli starts well from pole and leads from Lloyd; Huff jumps to third into Turn 1, while van Lagen drops to fifth behind Nash and Oriola
Lap 1 – Vernay and Tassi come together into Turn 1, they both spin and rejoin at the back
Lap 2 – Paulsen overtakes Borković for 11th
Lap 3 – Engstler overtakes Homola for 9th; Kajaia goes wide on the grass and rejoins
Lap 4 – Panis drives wide onto the grass and rejoins; Vernay hits Tassi and sends him off
Lap 5 – The Safety Car is deployed to recover Tassi’s car; Colciago pits with a flat front tyre; Engstler retires with a pierced radiator
Lap 8 – The race resumes; Comini moves up to 8th overtaking Paulsen and Homola; Oriola overtakes van Lagen for 5th after hitting him; Vernay is given a drive-through for the incident with Tassi
Lap 9 – Kajaia overtakes Kroes for 12th
Lap 10 – Oriola is given a drive-through for the incident with van Lagen; Tassi rejoins, but is black-flagged as he received mechanical aid to exit from the gravel trap
Lap 11 – Homola defends his 7th position from van Lagen and Paulsen
Lap 12 – Paulsen overtakes van Lagen for 8th, Borković retires with a pierced radiator
Lap 13 – Paulsen nearly loses his car and van Lagen retakes 8th
Lap 15 – Homola, Paulsen and van Lagen continue fighting; Kajaia joins the fighting trio
Lap 17 – Møller pits with a flat front tyre; Paulsen is black-flagged for track limits
Lap 18 – Kajaia slows down with a flat front tyre
Lap 19 – Morbidelli wins from Lloyd, Huff successfully defend third place from Nash
Race 2 – Morbidelli encores after a pile up
It was a masterful overtaking manoeuvre that enabled Gianni Morbidelli to score his second race win of the day at Oschersleben. On the last lap and in the last-but-one turn, the Italian dived inside Mat’o Homola’s Opel to strip the young Slovak of his first victory at the wheel of the Astra.
The race was marred by a catastrophic pile-up at the start that involved eight cars and eliminated some of the top guns, such as Roberto Colciago, Pepe Oriola, Rob Huff and James Nash.
After the wrecked cars were removed, the race could finally start and offered a great fight between the first four drivers who were running bumper-to-bumper for the whole 15 laps.
Homola tried everything to keep the Volkswagen Golf cars of Jean-Karl Vernay and Morbidelli behind, although they were clearly faster. Daniel Lloyd stuck to the tail of the leading trio, waiting for a chance to improve his third place.
After Morbidelli passed Vernay for second it was quite clear that Homola’s lead was under serious threat, as the Italian had a much faster pace. Eventually, Homola’s dream of giving Opel its maiden victory in the TCR International Series melted only a few hundreds metres from the chequered flag.
Amongst the survivors were Duncan Ende and Ferenc Ficza; the American finished seventh and scored his first points in the championship, while Ficza was classified tenth (despite a pit stop) and pocketed the first point as a KIA driver.
Key facts
Grid – Panis is missing following an engine failure
Start – Homola starts well, but there is havoc behind him; Colciago swerves to the left and hits Vernay who is pushed against Nash; Nash’s car collects Altoè’s, Colciago is t-boned by Oriola, while Altoè bounces to the other side of the track and crashes with Paulsen, Huff and Engstler; the race is red-flagged and the surviving cars retake their original grid positions
Re-start – Of the eight cars involved in the pile up, only Vernay’s can make the grid; once again Homola makes the best start
Lap 1 – van Lagen goes wide at Turn 1 and drops to 6th; he and Comini swap paint
Lap 2 – Borković overtakes Kajaia for 8th; van Lagen stops with a flat front tyre
Lap 3 – Vervisch overtakes Tassi for 8th; Borković retires with a broken exhaust
Lap 4 – Morbidelli overtakes Lloyd for third; Kroes overtakes Møller for 9th
Lap 5 – Vernay is chasing Homola, 0.3 seconds behind
Lap 6 – Ficza pits with vibrations and rejoins
Lap 7 – Kajaia retires with a flat front tyre; Kroes tries to overtake Vervisch for 6th, but goes off and retires
Lap 8 – Morbidelli overtakes Vernay for second; Møller and Demoustier fight for 8th
Lap 9 – Homola, Morbidelli and Vernay are covered by only 7 tenths
Lap 11 – The leading quartet of Homola, Morbidelli, Vernay and Lloyd deliver a close battle for victory; Demoustier and Møller are given drive-through penalties for track limits
Lap 13 – Tassi retires with a flat front tyre
Lap 15 – Morbidelli overtakes Homola on the last-but-one turn and wins; Homola keeps second ahead of Vernay and Lloyd
Driver quotes after the Oschersleben races
Gianni Morbidelli (1st in Race 1 & Race 2): “There couldn’t be a better day than this. I am really happy for the entire team, and also quite proud of myself. It looks like we finally woke up and this gives us tremendous motivation. In Race 1, I had a good start and pushed to build a gap, but I had to do it all over again after the safety-car period. It wasn’t easy but everything went well. In Race 2, I was lucky to escape the big crash at the start. Without it, I certainly couldn’t have repeated the win, but this is motorsport and sometimes you need some luck. The pace of the car was excellent and I could do some nice overtakes on Lloyd and Vernay, always between turn 11 and 12, where I knew I was faster than the others. With Homola it didn’t work the first time, but then, in the very last lap, I succeeded. Now, we can go on holidays satisfied!”
Daniel Lloyd (2nd in Race 1): “It was quite a good weekend for me, I am happy with the pace, as I am getting closer to the top guys. Gianni, though, was really unreachable in Race 1. In Race 2, I was lucky not to be caught up in the big crash, but my pace at the restart was not what we expected.”
Mat’o Homola (2nd in Race 2): “Clearly, I am disappointed to lose a possible first win for Opel only two corners from the end, after controlling the entire race, but Gianni did a great job. We had done most of the job, always pushing and trying to save the tyres, but it wasn’t enough. Still, I think we have to see the positive side: we are making consistent progress and we were not expecting to have such a good pace on a track like this. All in all, we can be satisfied.”
Rob Huff (3rd in Race 1): “I had a very good start in Race 1, but after 2-3 laps, it was clear to me that I didn’t have the pace to stay with the guys in front, so I focused in taking no risks, not ruin the tyres on the kerbs and control the SEAT cars behind me. In Race 2, I thought I was almost through the turmoil, after going left and right, right and left and almost stop to avoid the cars going in all directions. I was almost clear when I was hit quite violently from the back, and that was it.”
Jean-Karl Vernay (3rd in Race 2): “To be leading the points standings after a weekend like this is almost incredible and makes me very happy. Especially after Race 1 in which I got no points. Race 2 was eventful as well. I was sandwiched at the start between Colciago and Oriola, there was nothing I could do. When the race restarted, I tried to resist to Gianni, but he was faster than me and had also to defend myself from Lloyd. I felt I was a little bit quicker than Homola but not enough to pass him for second.”
60 cars on the grid for the TCR family photo
Sixty TCR racing cars together on the same grid; an opportunity to take an impressive family photo of the TCR International and the ADAC TCR Germany competitors that just could not be missed.
The cars of both series were placed on the Oschersleben starting grid on Sunday morning and the gates were opened to give spectators the opportunity to take a close-up look at the racing cars and their drivers.
Seven brands were represented: Audi (17 cars), SEAT (14), Volkswagen (12), Honda (10), Opel (4), Alfa Romeo (2) and KIA (1).
Last year, for the same picture, there were 32 cars…
Japanese delegation visited Oschersleben
A Japanese delegation visited Oschersleben to take an inside view of both the TCR International Series and ADAC TCR Germany.
The members of the delegation were representatives of three car manufacturers with JAF, Japan’s National Sporting Authority: Kaoru Shimamura of Honda, Masahiro Moritani of Toyota and Shoichi Kamimura of Mazda.
During the weekend they also had a meeting with the TCR promoter Marcello Lotti.
TCR Germany – Langeveld gives first win to Audi
Niels Langeveld of Racing One gave Audi its first victory in the TCR Germany series, although the Dutchman is currently being investigated for an incident that eliminated Florian Thoma’s Volkswagen.
Thoma made an excellent start from P2 and took the lead ahead of Steve Kirsch (Honda), Luca Engstler (Volkswagen), Langeveld and Josh Files (Honda), while Gosia Rdest’s Audi was pushed against the wall and Sheldon van der Linde’s Audi stalled on the grid.
On lap 2, Langeveld took third from Engstler, but the Safety Car was out to allow the retrieval of the Honda of Jürgen Schmarl from the gravel trap.
At the restart there was a good fight for the lead between Thoma and Kirsch, with the Swiss keeping the advantage, while Kirsch was defending the position from Langeveld. A slight contact between them sent Kirsch’s Honda into the gravel trap, with the Safety Car out again, as Jasmine Preisig’s Opel was also stuck in the gravel.
Shortly after the restart, Thoma spun in the last corner and was luckily avoided by the other cars; he rejoined in P12. Langeveld inherited the leadership ahead of Files, who passed Engstler, with Race 1 winner Morits Oestreich (Honda) fourth ahead of Harald Proczyk (SEAT) and Tom Lautenschlager (Audi).
Files has further stretched his leadership in the championship classification to 87 and 88 points ahead of Oestreich and Thoma respectively.
The ADAC TCR Germany series will resume on 22 and 23 July at Zandvoort, Netherlands.
2017 TCR International Series – calendar
2 April – Rustavi International Motorpark, Georgia
16 April – Bahrain International Circuit (F1 event)
6 May – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (WEC event)
14 May – Autodromo di Monza, Italy (ELMS event)
11 June – Salzburgring, Austria
18 June – Hungaroring, Hungary (DTM Event)
9 July – Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Germany (with ADAC TCR Germany)
3 September – Chang International Circuit, Buriram (with TCR Asia & TCR Thailand)
8 October – Zhejiang International Circuit, China (with TCR Asia & TCR China)
26 November – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi (F1 event)
Sources: TCR International Series PR