Craft-Bamboo Lukoil drivers Pepe Oriola, Jordi Gené and Sergey Afanasyev say they are happy with the pace they demonstrated in the TCR International Series in Valencia, having claimed a 1-2-3 result in race one.
The British-based team scored a perfect result in the opening race at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, with Oriola leading the race from start to finish. Afanasyev and Gené did not qualify as well on Saturday, but the duo managed to get strong getaways to jump main rivals Target Competition at the start of the race.
“The first race was easy, I had a really good start,” said Oriola. “Stefano [Comini] made a mistake and didn’t start so well, so I took a bit of an advantage already into the first corner. I had a two-to-three second gap to my team-mates so I could save the tyres and have an easy and quick race.”
Oriola looked comfortable throughout the opening race and his team-mates never troubled him for the lead.
“When you have your team-mates behind you the pressure is off somewhat. It was a really good race and I’m really happy for Craft-Bamboo and Lukoil. Yesterday my team-mates made some little mistakes in qualifying but they had the speed to get a 1-2-3 in the race too so I’m really happy at the end.”
The second race saw Oriola challenging Target Competition’s Michel Nykjær for second, but the Spaniard was unable to pass, despite swapping paint several times. Oriola was later given a drive-through penalty for having been adjudged to have overtaken behind the safety car, leaving him to finish down in fifth position after the results were finalised.
“Race two was a mess with the safety car and some drivers overtook behind this,” explained Oriola. “The officials said that they would investigate after the race and then with five laps to go they gave me a drive-through so I couldn’t do anything.
“We had a good car – especially Jordi, who was in front of me [on the grid]. I think he could have gone for a podium in race two as well, but he had a crash in the first lap.”
After finishing third in race one, Gené’s race two came to an end before he had even reached the first corner, when Oscar Nogués and Gianni Morbidelli made contact, pitching the former into the SEAT of Gené.
“In race two everything went wrong,” said Gené. “I made a good start again, I was on the right-hand side and suddenly an Opel appeared from nowhere. Suddenly I was hit by this car and going straight to the barriers. It was a big impact actually, and so I am very disappointed with race two because I was very close to P1 – I was absolutely confident and I told the team that if I manage to squeeze through I can win. So from looking at the win to looking at the big accident, it is a big disappointment.”
Gené added that he could have gone faster, but compromised his weekend with a mistake in qualifying that left him sixth on the grid for race one.
“The biggest mistake was in qualifying because we had a much better pace than sixth position [on the grid],” added the Spaniard. “Qualifying was my mistake, not the car’s mistake. This also compromised the whole weekend a bit.
“Race one was good, I made a good start. I was being like a gardener because I cut the grass for the circuit! After that I was close to second, but to overtake we had to risk too much and with a podium in hand, there was no chance to beat my team-mate.”
Afanasyev scored his best-ever TCR result with second in race one, and the Russian hopes to improve further in time for his home event in Sochi.
“It’s step-by-step; first it was third, then it was second, so let’s wait and see [what comes next],” said Afanasyev. “There is still the Russain Grand Prix.
“It was a great effort by the Craft-Bamboo team because we were far off the pace in Shanghai, and together with Jordi we have been catching up. The team did an amazing job in this period, catching up and searching for the problems, and they found them and they made it possible to be 1-2-3.
“Actually this championship is amazing, because as you can see in the second race there is another team which were 1-2-3 as well. I think it’s really equal and the team is doing a fantastic job, the car is fantastic.”