Larini says goodbye with 'lucky' points

Nicola Larini admitted he had hoped for more from his final outing in the World Touring Car Championship despite picking up a 'lucky' seventh place finish in the season finale in Macau.

The Chevrolet driver, who revealed prior to the weekend that Macau was to be his WTCC swansong, saw his chances of points in race one hit when he was delayed on the opening lap and could only manage to pick up a twelfth place finish as a result.

In the second race however, Larini quickly made up places at the start to climb into the points and was dicing for sixth place with Jordi Gene when he was fired into the barriers by Alex Zanardi at Lisboa on lap eight.

Luckily for Larini, an incident later in the lap forced the race to be red-flagged and with the result being taken a lap earlier, he was able to pick up points for seventh place despite his Cruze being left 'looking like a banana' following his accident.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't the race I had wanted for my farewell to the WTCC," he said. "In race one, I got stuck in the blockade provoked by the accident involving Andy Priaulx and lost many positions, then I had to struggle against Coronel and Rydell. In race two, I made a great start and was fighting with Gen? for sixth when Zanardi hit me very hard in the back, leaving my car like a banana!

"Luckily, the race was red-flagged because of another incident and I could save the seventh position. Now it's time to say goodbye to all the folks and ... en route for new adventures!"