Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli says that Macau was “a meeting to forget” after the Italian ended his World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) season with a tenth placed finish and a crash.
Morbidelli confessed to being ‘mad at himself’ after qualifying on Friday, in which he could only manage 12th on the grid. With overtaking being notoriously difficult around the Circuito da Guia street track, that proved to be the case in race one. Morbidelli made just two positions in the race, courtesy of a stall from Tom Chilton and the retirement of Hugo Valente.
In race two, Morbidelli was running in 11th position when on lap four he made a mistake at Fisherman’s bend and spun into the barriers and out of the race.
The crash ended the season on a disappointing note for Morbidelli, who admitted that he would rather forget the weekend.
“In Macau, if there’s something that you hope for is to say goodbye to the season with some good memory, but sadly this was just a meeting I’d rather forget,” said a downbeat Morbidelli. “That’s the way Macau is: you can’t pledge anything because it’s just unpredictable.
“Unlike in the last few meetings, today I had good starts in both races, but moving from row six – after we lost out a possible top ten spot in Q2 on Friday – I could not benefit from that.
“It’s too bad it turned out a lacklustre Sunday: I was looking forward to saying thanks to René Münnich, to the hard-working team lads, to the partners and friends that made possible my FIA WTCC comeback with something better than a P10. Nonetheless, thanks again to all of them, straight from the heart.”
Morbidelli has not yet confirmed his plans for 2015 but has made no secret of the fact that he hopes to be able to remain with the Germany-based Münnich Motorsport outfit.