How Guerrieri’s brilliance was masked during WTCR’s Italian trip

Esteban Guerrieri has explained what went wrong in his bid to challenge for a record-extending 11th victory in the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup when the series stopped off in Italy last weekend. The 10-time event winner, for whom Race 1 marked his 100th start in the WTCR, progressed to the Qualifying Q3 shootout in his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR.

However, a technical issue prevented him from challenging for pole position at Autodromo Vallelunga Piero Taruffi, as the ace Argentine explained. Ad/> “There wasn’t all that much luck on my side,” said Guerrieri.

“A cracked turbo pipe in Q3 meant we only started fifth in Race 1, and then a stone from another car put a hole in my radiator, which meant I started to lose water and eventually the engine let go. That meant we started from the back in Race 2, where the strategy was to attack.

The car felt really good and I tried to have a go at some of those ahead, but they had too much straightline speed so it was hard to do anything and in the end we swapped with Néstor. After that I was trying to save the tyres but near the end I got a puncture, which was unexpected because we hadn’t had any until then.” WTCRWTCR 100 Club: How it stands10 HOURS AGO Guerrieri had played the ultimate support role in Race 2, having run ahead of team-mate Girolami in fifth.

From the back of the pack, Guerrieri charged up the order and was first asked to attack the cars ahead, which included Goodyear #FollowTheLeader Mikel Azcona, then to drop back behind title contender Girolami, which also meant he could protect the lead Civic Type R TCR from those behind. Sixth place should have been Guerrieri’s reward, but he required a visit to the pits at the end of the penultimate