FIA WORLD TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUNDS 9 & 10 RACE REPORT
Weather: cloudy and windy, with a threat of rain and a dry
track Crowd: 71,000 over three days.
TERTING OVER THE MOON AS GIOVANARDI CLOSES THE GAP
In front of fully packed grandstands, the FIA WTCC’s
first overseas meeting provided a great show for the enthusiasitc
Mexican fans.
Two breathtaking races resulted in two different podiums;
only Tom Coronel was able to encore, scoring two victories
in the Independent’s Trophy.
The first race was dominated by the Alfa Romeo men. Fabrizio
Giovanardi claimed his second win of the season, leading his
team mate Gabriele Tarquini under the chequered flag. Only
in the final stages did Rickard Rydell manage to spoil an
Alfa Romeo 1-2-3 by overtaking James Thompson.
The second race saw Peter Terting leading from lights to
flag and obtain his first success as a professional racing
driver, and the second for SEAT this season. Antonio García
tried in vain to put pressure on him, and finally settled
for second. Again the third position was awarded after a tough
fight in which Roberto Colciago overtook Giovanardi on the
last lap, completing a stunning recovery from 20th position
on the grid. However he was later penalised by 30 seconds
for this manoeuvre.
BMW had a black day – only partially saved by García’s
podium – as Andy Priaulx and both the Müllers scored
just one point between them. Despite this Dirk Müller
is still leading the Drivers Championship, but only with a
2-point margin ahead of Giovanardi who managed to move up
to second. Priaulx slipped down to third, closely chased by
García and Tarquini. The top-five drivers are covered
by only 9 points.
Chevrolet drivers scored their first Championship points
today. Robert Huff broke the duck with a 6th position in Race
1. He could have done even better in the second, but he made
a mistake and went off. However his team mate Nicola Larini
managed to finish 8th.
The FIA WTCC will now return to Europe, for Rounds 11 and
12 on 30th of July in Spa, Belgium.
RACE 1 – GIOVANARDI AND TARQUINI MAKE 1-2
Due to the implementation of penalties, Colciago (qualified
1st), Terting (qualified 2nd) Farfus (qualified 4th) and Plato
(qualified 10th) were all demoted by ten positions on the
grid for the start of Race 1. At the start Giovanardi took
the lead from pole position, followed by team mate Thompson.
During the first lap Tarquini overtook Gené for third,
García overtook Huff, and Coronel climbed one position
to 8th. In lap 2, Gené touched the wall at the entrance
of turn 15 and was unable to continue. Colciago overtook Menu,
Coronel, Huff and García in the next 2 laps to jump
to 5th. Terting overtook Coronel for 8th position in lap 4.
Over the next two laps, Colciago had Rydell in his sights
and eventually overtook the SEAT driver in the first turn
of lap 7. In the same lap, the BMW cars of Priaulx and Zanardi
made contact at turn 4. The former went to the pits and rejoined
for the last few laps whereas the latter continued and finished
13th overall. Tarquini claimed 2nd position from team-mate
Thompson in lap 8 while Dirk Müller was chasing Huff.
The Chevrolet was just 0.192 of a second ahead of Müller
at the start of lap 8 but soon pulled away with a gap of over
two seconds. Colciago’s storming progress ended as a
gearbox failure meant he retired to the pits. While Giovanardi
and Tarquini pulled away with a gap of 10 seconds, Rydell
was chasing Thompson for the third podium position and eventually
overtook him on lap 14. In the meantime, Rydell’s team-mate,
Terting was battling with Huff, for 6th place, the latter
made a move on lap 16 and crossed the finishing line ahead
of the young German, scoring Chevrolet’s first points
in the Drivers’ Championship. Dirk Müller was close
behind the pair until he also hit the wall on the banking
and retired. García finished in 5th position, the best
of the BMW cars. Coronel won the Independent category with
a brilliant 8th place overall.
RACE 2 – FIRST VICTORY FOR PETER TERTING
At the start, Terting overtook Coronel to lead the race.
García got off the line quickly to jump from 4th to
2nd.
In the opening lap Tarquini and Zanardi made contact, both
came off the track and sustained too much damage to continue
the race. On lap 2, Thompson overtook Coronel for 3rd and
Giovanardi passed Huff for 5th as they crossed the line. Giovanardi
proceeded to gain another place over the next three laps by
passing Coronel, who at this point had a long line of drivers
behind him.
In lap 6, García and Thompson made contact. Both
went off the track but rejoined. Huff, spun his car at turn
six which put an end to his race in lap 7 while he was fighting
for 5th position with Colciago and Coronel. At the same time
the 9th Rydell and 14th D’Aste were in a long line,
almost bumper to bumper.
Lap 13 saw Gené, who started the race from the pits,
crash his car into the tyres at turn 11. He did return to
the race after visit to the pits but only completed 12 laps.
Halfway through the race, García provided some nail
biting moments as he trailed Terting’s SEAT closely
for the entire race and edged closer towards the end, but
the young German resisted and went to claim his first victory.
Colciago had an amazing race. He came from 20th and by lap
seven he was in eighth position. He continued to pass his
competitors one by one, until he was fighting for the third
podium spot. In the last three laps, the JAS Motorsport man
closed the gap between he and Giovanardi from 2.7 seconds
to just 0.7 coming into the final lap. It was at these very
final stages Colciago made a move on Giovanardi, they clashed,
Colciago went through and crossed the line 0.117 of a second
ahead. After the race the Stewards decided to impose a 30-second
penality on him, which meant he was dropped to 18th.
Coronel won the independent category for the second time
of the day, and again scored points for the Drivers’
Championship with an excellent 5th position overall.
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