Tarquini out of Marrakech WTCC round

Gabriele Tarquini will miss tomorrow's opening round of the World Touring Car Championship in Marrakech after a practice accident.

The 52-year-old's Honda Civic was T-boned when trying to rejoin the track after overshooting the Turn 4 chicane by Gianni Morbidelli's Chevrolet, which had straightlined the chicane and launched over a kerb before hittiing the Italian's door on the driver's side.

The damage means the Civic could not be repaired for either qualifying or the race, but Tarquini praised the strict safety measures of the 2014 TC1 WTCC machines after escaping serious injury.

"I have a bit of back pain because of the very strong side impact, but I am OK," said Tarquini. "Due to the film or oil on the track, the track was very slippery. I locked the front tyres and decided to go straight.

"After I turned, I was approaching the way between the new kerbs on the outside and the wall. So I was thinking to rejoin the track slowly there, and at this moment I received this side-impact.

"The seating position has moved for 2014, that has helped and also this new seat. You are more central especially the new seat, because they made it very strict on safety. The new seat is much stronger than last year."

The damaged factory Honda was pinned between Morbidelli's car and a tire barrier, forcing Tarquini to get out of the trunk of the car as he was concerned about the potential for fire.

"With the turbo, there are parts of the engine that are at 1200C, so it is very easy to have a big fire because of some fuel or oil," he said. "The smoke came from the front discs, and I saw the smoke and I knew I had to get out. I tried to break the side windows, but with this plastic it is very difficult.

"The marshal tried very cleverly to break the rear, in the middle, at this point I thanked him and jumped over the small space in the cross in the roll-cage and in five seconds I was out."

Honda will run Tarquini in its test car for next weekend's second WTCC round at Paul Ricard, while also building up a new machine.

"The car has to be completely destroyed because it is not adjustable," explained JAS Motorsport boss Alessandro Mariani. "While we go to Le Castellet [Ricard], we will build a new car for Gabriele. In Marrakech last year we left with two cars completely destroyed and then we did a one-two [next time out] in Slovakia. So we have to repeat the experience."

Morbidelli was forced to sit out qualifying thanks to damage to the front of his car.

Originally on Autosport.com