WestCoast Racing made a resplendent return to the top in the TCR International Series, as Gianni Morbidelli and Kevin Gleason pulled out all the stops to achieve a remarkable one-two result in qualifying for Round 8 of the championship at the Red Bull Ring (11 July).
A day of inactivity on Friday meant the first of two free practice sessions was held on a very green track and Target Competition’s Stefano Comini topped the timesheets in FP1 with the #10 entry of Morbidelli the highest-placed Honda in seventh.
The Italian drove on the ragged edge, but his efforts were all in vain and he had the unenviable task of bridging a sizeable 1.3s gap to the frontrunners prior to the all-important qualifying session on Saturday (11 July) afternoon.
For Gleason and Igor Skuz, the pace increased as they became more acquainted with the Red Bull Ring, and the teammates made good use of their time to learn the intricacies of the 4.32km Austrian circuit, having only had an opportunity to analyse racing lines, braking points and cambers during Friday’s 90-minute track walk.
WestCoast Racing was understandably concerned by its deficit to the pace-setting SEATs at the conclusion of FP1, but more setup work was required and the Halmstad, Sweden-based team continued its search for the optimal configuration by combining what it had learnt during FP1 with a pre-determined contingency plan.
A revised car configuration made all the difference for Morbidelli, who traded blows with Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Mikhail Grachev for top honours in FP2, but the 47-year old Italian happily settled for second, in the knowledge that he would have yet more speed on fresh tyres in qualifying.
Ukrainian racer, Skuz, almost matched his vastly more experienced teammate for pace in the early throes of the session, but his best would only be good enough for ninth in the final classification, while his American teammate, Gleason, languished in 11th.
Additional pre-qualifying setup tweaks saw all three WestCoast Hondas through to the top-12 shootout, where times are reset and drivers have only ten minutes to determine their starting positions for the races.
Morbidelli set the bar high straight out of the blocks in Q2. The ex-Formula 1 ace went half a second quicker than the rest of the field on his first flying lap and then improved twice more, finally stringing together three purple sectors in an awe-inspiring performance that saw him seal a dominant pole position as the only man to breach the 1m39s barrier.
“I am very happy and I must thank WestCoast Racing, because they’re constantly pushing, they believe in fighting to the end and we have a really good relationship, and this pole position wouldn’t have been possible without them,” said Morbidelli. “We struggled this morning because the ambient temperatures were very cool and we also tried something new with the setup in the hope of discovering more performance, but that didn’t quite work out. We decided to go in the opposite direction and the car was significantly better in second practice, so I started to think that we might be there or thereabouts in qualifying. I never expected to be so quick! In Q1 I struggled with oversteer, but some in-session tweaks improved that and gave us consistency. The car ran very well and I was able to do three very quick laps on four completely fresh tyres, which made a big difference.”
A methodical approach to practice also paid dividends for Gleason, as the 28-year old sublimely sealed a WestCoast Racing one-two in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, Skuz going 11th fastest.
The result was a welcome surprise for Gleason, who was left wondering whether there’s something in the water in Austria, having also broken his race wins duck in the TCR International Series’ recent visit to the Salzburgring in May.
“It was a bit of a surprise to put in such a quick lap,” said Gleason. “I learnt a lot on fresh tyres in Q1 and I was simply able to pull it all together. I wasn’t sure what I’d see on my dash and I certainly wasn’t expecting to reach the front row! The track was very green, the temperatures were cool to begin with and we tried a radical setup, so the car was pretty difficult to drive while learning the Red Bull Ring. We retreated on some things that we learnt earlier this year to make the car work in today’s conditions, which constantly evolved from one session to the next. We’re now pretty solid, but how successful we are in the races will be determined by the conditions and whether we hit the setup right.”
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