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ROUNDS 3 & 4 - PUEBLA-AMOZOC, MEXICO Montiero's first win
Rickard Rydell and Gabriele Tarquini battled for second position with the Swede coming out on top after Tarquini ran wide, and Rydell slipped through on lap 14. Rydell had another great start coming up from seventh to fourth on the first lap. Tarquini had jumped up to third at the start ahead of eventual fourth placed team mate Yvan Muller. First race winner Jordi Gené, finished in fifth after the problems for Chevrolet's Alain Menu and Nicola Larini, the latter failed to finish the race after a rear suspension collapsed following a collision with another car. Gené was battling with Muller for fifth position, but he came off worse and Muller proceeded to overtake Menu. Menu ran wide and fell down to tenth position, allowing the SEAT's to dominate. He battled back up to seventh, behind Tom Coronel who rounded off SEAT's top six positions. BMW UK's Andy Priaulx finished in the top BMW car in eighth place as he fought with Menu and Huff for most of the race, as the BMWs struggled once again. Priaulx was the only German make's man to score during the weekend. Robert Huff had another eventful race: after a poor start he made his way back up to eighth, only for him to drop places down to tenth. For the rest of the race he battled with Priaulx and Menu and eventually finished just outside the points in ninth. Pierre-Yves Corthals won the Independents' class to add to his triumph in race one. He is now on joint points with Stefano D'Aste, who finished behind him in fourteenth, and Olivier Tielemans who had won both races in Brazil. The start was clean but, once again, Jörg Müller and Alessandro Zanardi had clashes during the first lap, and Müller later left the track but rejoined to finish the race behind Zanardi in twelfth. SEAT lead the Championship going into the next races in Valencia, May 18th, following their strong weekend in Puebla, with Rydell at the top of the drivers Championship. ANOTHER 1-2 FOR SEAT WITH GENÉ AND RYDELL
ROUNDS 1 & 2 - CURITIBA , BRAZIL RACE 1 REPORT SEAT SPORT CLAIM A 1-2 FINISH
SEAT
Sport drivers Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell
This was a tough race for the leading two, who in the final laps had to work hard to defend their position as their tyres were wearing out. However, it was even tougher for Chevrolet. On lap 3 Nicola Larini made contact with Robert Huff , who spun in the centre of the racetrack. Larini could not continue the race, but Huff continued and began to make up ground by overtaking Félix Porteiro, only to pit on lap 8 with rear suspension failure; a late result of the collision. Alain Menu had also pitted earlier following a shunt with Jordi Gené and did not resume the race. Farfus had a poor start falling back to fifth, as he was one of cars to take to the grass at the first corner. However, he quickly made up ground passing Müller on lap 3, and then both of them passed Gabriele Tarquini on lap 8 moving up to third and fourth respectively. For the remainder of the race Farfus chased the leading cars, but on the final lap came under pressure from his team mate and had to defend third place until the finish. Reigning world champion Andy Priaulx took fifth spot following late overtaking of Tarquini and Gené. Porteiro made up the top eight finishers in the race, overtaking Tom Coronel. However it will be Tom Coronel (9th classified) to start from pole on the reverse grid of the second race as Gené was given a 30 second penalty due to hitting Menu. In the Independents' class the fight for the first place between Pierre-Yves Corthals and Sergio Hernández ended in a final lap contact. Corthals crossed the line first but eventually he was given a 30-second penalty and Olivier Tielemans inherited victory. Race 1 Results 1. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI 16 laps 2. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon TDI +0.763 3. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si +1.234 4. Jorg Muller BMW 320si +1.512 5. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si +6.747 6. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI +8.247 7. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si +15.564 8. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon TDI +16.334 9. Olivier Tielemans BMW 320si +22.871 10. Stefano D'Aste BMW 320si +25.886
Quotes -: Yvan MULLER "I wasn't expecting to keep my position for the whole race for several reasons: the temperature went up very quickly and the weather wasn't in our favour. Also the lap times of the BMW showed they were very consistently quick, and it was hard. It wasn't easy at all because any small mistake could have caused the end, so we had attack all the way through." Rickard RYDELL "I am very pleased with the result today. It was one of the toughest races I have had and it was clear that BMW were half a second quicker than us and they pushed. Yvan and I have to thank Gabriele (Tarquini) because without him there we would have had to deal with the pressure for the whole race, but we only had to it for half of the race. I really didn't think it would be possible to keep Farfus behind me." Augusto FARFUS "I was right on the limit and could not have pushed more, we were quite strong and they did a very good job. It is very hard to overtake in those conditions and I am happy with 3rd as the championship is very long. The start wasn't the problem, but there was a bit of a mess at the first corner and I went onto the grass and was able to slot into 5th place." Pierre-Yves CORTHALS "I couldn't have wished for a better start, I am sorry for Coronel who I bumped, but I am happy. I had a good fight with Hernández, he passed me but on the last last he braked really early compared to me and I slightly bumped him, for which I am sorry, and went through." Race 2 TARQUINI ROUNDS OFF SEAT'S GREAT DAY
On the
day of his 46th birthday Gabriele Tarquini
He started on the second row, but as Tom Coronel and Félix Porteiro fell back, he surged through to the front. He held off a strong challenge from Porteiro, and then from the eventual second place position holder Andy Priaulx. Tarquini took the lead at a start that saw Chevrolet's Robert Huff shunted off the track by another car on the first corner, the rear left suspension collapsed and he was unable to continue. With Nicola Larini and Alain Menu also finishing out of the points, it rounded off a bad weekend for Chevrolet. Coronel did not have the pace to compete with the BMW and SEAT works cars and he fell back to an eventual ninth position. On the third lap he was overtaken by Jörg Müller, Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell , then later by a charging Augusto Farfus. Müller and Muller fought over fourth place, and the BMW Team Germany driver eventually came out on top, with the Frenchman behind him in fifth. Farfus battled past Rydell, and they finished sixth and seventh respectively, as Farfus could not find a way past Muller in the final laps. After his penalty from the earlier race Jordi Gené began the race in ninth, but moved ahead of Coronel to secure the final point. On lap 9 Priaulx squeezed past Porteiro going into turn 1, and then chased after Tarquini. However, the Italian kept him at bay to take the chequered flag in his SEAT, ahead of three BMW drivers. In the Independents' class Olivier Tielemans, who had won the first race due to a 30-second time penalty imposed to Corthals, triumphed again. He enjoyed a close battle with Alessandro Zanardi and eventually finished in fourteenth position overall. Race 2 results 1. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI 14 laps 2. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si +0.327 3. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si +1.202 4. Jorg Muller BMW 320si +1.745 5. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI +5.045 6. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si +5.360 7. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon TDI +6.306 8. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDI +7.637 9. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon TDI +13.526 10. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti +17.262
Quotes : Gabriele TARQUINI "I'm 46 today, so this is the best present, as you feel old when you look around you. It was a tough race, but I got a very good start. I think in the first corner Porteiro drove too much over the kerb at turn 4 and I took the lead. This is where I made the victory. We had improved the set up for the second race, but it was the speed and lack of mistakes that helped me win. The pressure was strong as Porteiro was very fast in the first few laps, and the last laps were very hard." Andy PRIAULX "It was an interesting race, we were in a good position from the start. The car felt really good, but Gabriele (Tarquini) drove a really fast race, he made a good move at the beginning, he was very opportunist, and drove very tidy. So I hope I can drive as well as him when I'm 46! I was surprised he started so well, as I thought maybe I could sneak up the inside of him in turn 1. I'd rather be in front of him than the other way round, but he should be pleased with his race." Félix PORTEIRO "It was a good start to the season, after I qualified 13th I didn't expect to be in the points this weekend because we had some problems with the car. We worked very hard for the first race and improved a little bit, but for the second one we improved a lot and were very competitive at the beginning, although not at the end. I expected Andy (Priaulx) to overtake me; in the first two laps I thought I could win the race because I was very competitive, then after 4 laps I could see it was difficult to compete with Tarquini, and I didn't want have an accident with another BMW so I didn't close the door too much. I was happy with third in the end." Olivier TIELEMANS "This is my second year and I'm pretty happy that I can start with two wins, and it's very good for the team, so I'm happy for them as well. I had an incredible fight with Alessandro Zanardi ; when I was very young I watched him in Formula 1 and now I fighting with him for position, but in the end he was much stronger and pushed me a little wide at the first corner, which is why I lost my position. Anyway I'm happy to be the best Independent." Other news FARFUS EXCLUDED FROM RACE 1 Augusto Farfus, who had finished third in today's first race was later excluded by the Stewards following a report from the FIA Technical Delegate. Farfus' car was excluded because of a technical breach, which consisted of the "V" support for the fixation of the engine protection not complying with the technical regulations. However, the Stewards considered that there was no fraudolent intent from the team. THREE CARS STARTED AT THE BACK Three drivers - Nicola Larini , Sergio Hernández and Alain Menu - asked for neutralization of the park fermé between the two races, in order to repair damage obtained in the collisions they were involved in during the first race. As a consequence they were all pushed to the back of the grid for the second race. FIA LIMITS DIESEL TURBO PRESSURE The FIA Touring Car Bureau have issued a decision this morning to limit the supercharged air pressure and the fuel rail pressure on the SEAT León TDI cars. Both pressures have been limited to the average maximum values measured by the FIA data logger during yesterday's qualifying session. This decision only applies to the current race meeting. ALAIN MENU BACK IN ACTION Alain Menu has fully recovered from his crash during yesterday's qualifying session. The Swiss driver was discharged by Curitiba 's Cajuru hospital after all the scans were negative and this morning he was cleared to race after a final check from the FIA medical delegate. The Chevrolet team worked until 1.00am on Sunday morning to repair his Lacetti car that suffered from extensive damage to the bodywork and suspension. WARMUP - FARFUS FASTEST, D'ASTE CRASHES Stefano D'Aste crashed at turn 9 near to the end of the warm up session, seriously damaging his BMW, but escaped unharmed. However Proteam Motorsport's mechanics were able to repair the car in time for the races. The crash happened with one minute to go in the session, which was red flagged and not resumed. This left Augusto Farfus as fastest with a time of 1:24.237 leading a BMW 1-2-3 from Jörg Müller and Andy Priaulx.
QUALIFYING REPORT MULLER AND RYDELL GIVE SEAT FRONT ROW
Yvan Muller placed his SEAT León TDI on pole position following an eventful qualifying session in Curitiba , with a time of 1:24.295, the fastest time of the weekend so far, half a second faster than Jörg Müller's pole from last year. His SEAT Sport team-mate Rickard Rydell followed closely in second with a time of 1:24.404, and BMW Team Germany 's Augusto Farfus qualified third, 0.187 behind the leader. Gabriele Tarquini set the fourth fastest lap, completing SEAT's great day as the Spanish manufacturer occupied three of the top four positions, while Nicola Larini emerged as the fastest Chevrolet driver claiming the fifth spot. Farfus' team-mate Jörg Müller clocked the sixth best lap and then failed to improve it when he spun near the end of the session in front of three other BMW cars (Farfus', Zanardi's and Porteiro's) who missed him by inches. The action-packed qualifying began with some of the drivers not immediately joining the track. Once everyone was out Ibrahim Okyay ran wide at turn 9 and Olivier Tielemans spun at turn 3 but rejoined. Seventeen minutes into the session Alain Menu came off the track at the last corner and his Chevrolet crashed into the wall. Menu escaped unharmed but shocked; the first checks at the tracks medical centre were all negative, but as a precaution he was transported to the closest hospital for scans. The session being red-flagged meant that Menu's team-mate Robert Huff and Farfus, amongst others, had to abort some very promising fastest laps. Ten minutes later the qualifying resumed, but Müller's spin caused a yellow flag that prevented many drivers to improve further. Larini was amongst those who succeeded and moved up to fifth. Pierre-Yves Corthals qualified his Exagon Engineering SEAT on pole position in the independents' class with a time of 1:25.363, which placed him in 15th position overall.
NEWS
PRACTICE 1 - MÜLLER JUMPS ON TOP AT THE END Jörg Müller went fastest on a track that still had some puddles after a rainy night. With a time of 1.24.566 he popped his BMW into the top spot in the final moments of the session, ahead of Alain Menu with a time of 1.24.893, and Augusto Farfus 0.337 behind the leader. Pierre-Yves Corthals headed the Independents with a time of 1.25.982, which put him in 15th position overall.
PRACTICE 2 - CORONEL LEADER OF THE PACK Tom Coronel took the top spot in a surprise finish with a time of 1.25.036. He led from Augusto Farfus , only 0.002 seconds behind the Dutchman, with Nicola Larini in third with a gap of 0.207. The second session was even closer than the previous one with the first fourteen drivers covered by just 7 tenths of a second. SEAT Sport driver Gabriele Tarquini missed the second half of the session due to hitting the kerb at turn 2 on his sixth lap and breaking the suspension. Pierre-Yves Corthals headed the Independents' class once again with a time of 1.26.051, an improvement of nearly a second from this morning's session.
CHEVROLET'S ARGENTINE GUESTS The Chevrolet Elaion team - the reigning champion in the Argentine TC2000 championships - paid a visit to their fellow WTCC colleagues in Curitiba . Drivers Marcelo Bugliotti, Christian Ledesma and Ricardo Risatti, together with team manager Jorge Málquez spent a lot of time visiting Chevrolet's garage and talking to Alain Menu , Nicola Larini and Robert Huff.
Quotes
Yvan MULLER "It's a very good start to the season, but qualifying is one thing and the race is another thing. We can be very competitive on one lap but the race is much harder on the tyres. Last year we were nowhere as BMW finished 1-2- 3 in both races. I hope we can do better this year. The forecasts say it will be warm tomorrow, but for us rain would be better."
Rickard RYDELL "I'm really pleased to come back to SEAT. I like the championship and having tried other categories I really enjoy the World Touring Cars. To be on the front row together with Yvan is a really good start. But just like Yvan said doing more laps with the tyres will be different. The turbo-diesel car makes a little bit harder to go through the race as we have to cope with the front wheel drive."
Augusto FARFUS "Qualifying was a bit strange with the red flag in the middle of the session that disturbed everybody. I was on my fast lap so I had to abort and on following attempt I Jörg spun in front of me so it wasn't a perfect situation, but to be third on the grid is good. We know that we will be quite strong in the race. We expected SEAT to be ahead in the qualifying, so let's see for the race and try to fight for the podium."
Pierre- Yves CORTHALS "It is good for me to come here and be competitive straight away, because we did not test during the winter so I am happy. Our petrol-powered cars has a different set-up compared to the other SEAT so we'll see the way it will behave during the race."
Robert HUFF ' We should have been right up the front, but on the lap where I had my good first sector Alain had an incident, quite a big incident, and I had to abort. It was a shame. The last lap was an improvement but we had a yellow flag at turn 7 so again I had abort. The car has the potential, last year there were a lot of problems with the understeer, and this year we have worked very hard on this and we've come here and had the opposite."
Friday Practice FARFUS SMASHES HIS OWN RECORD
Just like in 2007, local hero Augusto Farfus emerged as the fastest driver in the Friday's 30-minute test session. On top of this the BMW Team Germany man set the fastest lap ever to be achieved by a WTCC car in Curitiba at 1:24.704, beating his own pole position time from 2006 (1:24.761). Following closely behind were SEAT Sport drivers Gabriele Tarquini , 2nd by 0.079 seconds and Rickard Rydell , 3rd with a gap of 0.223. Their team-mate Jordi Gené eventually slotted into 4th at the last minute, 0.241 behind the leader. Cars from three different manufacturers filled the top-five as Nicola Larini 's Chevrolet Lacetti came in 5th, having had a strong session remaining in the top six for most of the laps with a time of 1.25.040. Andy Priaulx and Jörg Müller had respectable sessions, remaining in the top five for many laps, with Müller even clocking the provisional fastest lap at one stage. However, when the practice ended they slipped down to 6th and 7th respectively as other drivers pipped them to the top places. In total four drivers - Müller, Farfus, Larini and Tarquini - enjoyed spells at the top throughout the session. Yvan Muller set the 11th fastest time after losing nearly the first half of the session due to an engine problem. There were a few moments of excitement when Olivier Tielemans and Franz Engstler went wide at turn 1, Tom Coronel clipped the tyres at the end of the pit straight, Zanardi spun at turn 2 but rejoined and Okyay spun at turn 9 hitting the tyre wall with the rear of the car. In the Independents' category Sergio Hernández topped the class with a time of 1.26.146 in his BMW 320si, which placed him 14th after the chequered flag.
Extra Items FARFUS JUST MARRIED . Local hero Augusto Farfus got married last Saturday to his fiancée Liri.To celebrate the wedding the BMW Team Germany 's mechanics tied tins to his car for the moment when he would leave the garage at the start of the test session.Farfus clanged along the pit lane and stopped before joining the track, waiting for the mechanics to remove the tins.His BMW also sported the words "Just Married Liri & Augusto" on the rear windscreen. LOTTI HONOURED BY CURITIBA KSO General Manager Marcello Lotti was awarded honorary citizenhip by the city of Curitiba for his efforts to establish the WTCC Brazilian event. "I feel extremely honoured and I wish to share this recognition with KSO and its staff, the FIA and Augusto Farfus sr. who have worked hard alongside me to make this event successful," said Lotti when the city's mayor Beto Richa handed him the honour. Quotes: Augusto FARFUS "Actually I did not expect to be so fast, due to the weather; to the light rain that was coming through the whole day. Part of the track was resurfaced and this helped in some sectors and corners, and the track will improve more during the weekend. So let's see how it will be. This is a good start and let us keep pushing." Jordi GENÉ "We are the most competitive other than Farfus so far. We are happy as our cars are all really close. The set up, which was the problem we had last year, was good straight away and it worked for all of us. I'm sure everyone will go faster tomorrow. It is good to have a consistent car and our is not the fastest, but is consistent which is important to start the weekend." Nicola LARINI "I think I am at the minute more confident than when I arrived. I don't know how much SEAT are pushing, but compared to the other competitors we are not so bad considering we are not much lighter from last year, but the car is better in the handling. The team have done a very good job with the chassis, and the suspension, we cannot compensate for what we have lost with the engine, but we are going in the right way." .
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editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk The opinions expressed on this site are not necessarily shared by 11/56 MotorSport or any of theGrid team Material Copyright © 2005 11/56 MotorSport |
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Even
though it was Chevrolet"s Alain Menu who began from pole position for
the second race in Puebla, it was SEAT Sport annihilation in Mexico.
Tiago Monteiro took the chequered flag with a spotless drive throughout
the race after he took the lead into the first corner.
Jordi
Gené led from pole to secure the win of the first race in Puebla. He
started alongside Chevrolet's Nicola Larini, and was only challenged
during the rolling start when Larini came up beside him off the line.
Gené's SEAT Sport team mate Rickard Rydell came up from sixth during the
first corner scuffle to second place, and remained there for the rest of
the race. From this position he was able to protect his team mate from
the Chevrolet charge coming from behind. 
held
off the BMW Team Germany 's attack of Augusto Farfus and Jörg Müller, to
win the first race in Curitiba . 
