ROUNDS 5 & 6 – VALENCIA, SPAIN
RACE 1 REPORT
Weather: overcast, with a dry track.
THOMPSON WINS RACE 1 FOR ALFA ROMEO
. Six cars were involved in incidents in the first corner
meaning three laps under safety car conditions. Andy Priaulx
came home 5th, in between SEAT Sport duo Jordi Gené
(4th) and Michel Jourdain (6th, first championship points
for him). Jörg Müller will begin Race 2 from pole
after claiming 8th position.
The rolling start saw Tarquini making contact with the side
of Monteiro’s car. The two veered off in opposite directions.
As Monteiro was sent across the track he collected Robert
Huff. In a domino effect Roberto Colciago of SEAT Sport Italia
and BMW Team Italy-Spain drivers Félix Porteiro and
Alex Zanardi also found themselves in the gravel. They all
retired. Seconds later Augusto Farfus of BMW Team Germany
spun and rejoined in 17th. The race was resumed at the end
of lap 4 and while the front runners kept position there was
a shuffle towards the back. Luca Rangoni (eventual winner
of the independents’ race and 7th overall), overtook
Pierre-Yves Corthals. Moments after, Tom Coronel and Jörg
Müller also passed the Belgian. Müller promoted
himself to 8th over the next few laps by overtaking Coronel
and Stefano D’Aste. Meanwhile, Larini was defending
against Yvan Muller. Lap 12 saw a further pile-up after Coronel
hit the back of D’Aste’s BMW 320si which also
caught Farfus. All three cars sped into the gravel and while
D’Aste crossed the line 12th, Coronel and Farfus finished
21st and 22nd respectively.
In the Independents’ Trophy, local boy Sergio Hernández
recovered up to second position, behind his Proteam Motorsport
team-mate Rangoni. Third place went to SEAT Sport Italia’s
rookie Massimiliano Pedalà.
BULLET NEWS WARM-UP:
THOMPSON STAYS ON TOP
James Thompson set the fastest lap in the morning warm-up
clocking a time of 1:43.958. The Alfa Romeo man was followed
by Chevrolet’s Robert Huff and SEAT Sport Italia’s
Roberto Colciago who had a gap of four and eight tenths respectively.
All the 28 drivers hit the track, including Emmet O’Brien
(a brilliant 14th fastest time) and Lev Fridman; they both
had missed yesterday’s qualifying due to technical problems.
PEDALÁ SHINES ON SUNDAY MORNING
On his maiden WTCC appearance, SEAT Sport Italia’s
Massimiliano Pedalà lined up at the back of the grid
for today’s Race 1.
Yesterday Pedalà’s SEAT León suffered
from an engine failure during the first free practice and
then failed to post a qualifying time because of clutch problems.
However the team managed to repair the car in time for the
warm up session in which he clocked the 9th fastest time.
THEY SAID, THEY SAID…
James THOMPSON
“This win is fantastic! I was intent on pushing in the
race and after lap one I’d created a good gap and wanted
to control the race, which I did, despite the safety car re-start.
The team have developed a car around me and my driving style
so this weekend I have the best car possible and obtained
the best result possible. When you have the best car things
look easy.”
Nicola LARINI
“Just as in Zandvoort I’m second again. But second
means a lot of points for the championship and that’s
not a bad thing. I had a fantastic start. My choice to start
in 2nd gear was the right one because I had a lot more speed
than the people around me. Thompson was too fast to catch
over.”
Yvan MULLER
“Being on the outside in a rolling start means it is
difficult to keep position. Nicola (Larini) was really fast
so I couldn’t get behind James (Thompson) as I wanted.
Instead I tried to go outside James but it didn’t work
and I lost the place. I was quick in the corners but on every
straight I lost about a car’s length to Nicola.”
Luca RANGONI
“This victory is a very important one because after
a difficult time in qualifying yesterday I didn’t think
it would happen. I have to say I was lucky because with all
the crashes I found a gap and went through.”
Michel JOURDAIN
“Spain is like a second home to me so it’s
fantastic to score my first points here. At the start people
were hitting me from everywhere and I just tried to keep the
car straight. When I came out of turn one I saw everybody
behind me spinning and then Farfus was hitting me a little
bit and he went off. In the middle of the race I was losing
grip, I knew there was nobody behind me so I concentrated
on making no mistakes.”
RACE 2 REPORT
Weather: overcast, with a dry track. Crowd: 22,000 over the
weekend.
SECOND VICTORY FOR THOMPSON
In undoubtedly the best race of the season so far James Thompson
scored his second victory of the day. He stormed through from
eighth on the grid. Jörg Müller crossed the line
second while Andy Priaulx claimed the final podium position.
Yvan Muller achieved SEAT Sport’s best result by coming
home 4th. Chevrolet’s Nicola Larini had another strong
point-scoring race finishing 5th overall.
Jörg Müller and Andy Priaulx now have a joint lead
in the championship, 3 points ahead of Augusto Farfus, while
Nicola Larini moved up to 4th, only a further 3 points adrift.
Luca Rangoni had a great start and coming into the second
corner he was in the lead. By the second corner however Müller
had reclaimed the position. Priaulx had promoted himself to
third by overtaking Michel Jourdain’s SEAT León.
The Mexican got a bad start and was overtaken by Thompson
on lap one. Alain Menu tried to capitalise and briefly went
through but Jourdain reclaimed 7th place.
Lap three was one of battles with Yvan Muller and Priaulx
fighting for third, and Thompson with Gené in his sights.
Priaulx defended against Muller while Thompson overtook the
Gené. Muller then came under fire from the Alfa man
and lost 4th place to him.
On lap four Priaulx overtook Rangoni for the podium position.
Rangoni then dropped down to finish seventh but still claimed
the independent win. It was not an easy task however as his
Valencian rookie team-mate Sergio Hernández was challenging
all the way and eventually finished a remarkable eighth to
score a championship point.
While Müller and Priaulx contested the lead Thompson
overtook Rangoni for third and caught up on the pair. At the
end of the pit straight on lap seven the Briton edged past
Priaulx, he then overtook Müller on the following lap.
On the last lap Menu suffered a technical problem and dropped
from 6th to 14th; the position behind team-mate Rob Huff who
had also slipped out of the point zone after he went wide
on lap 8.
The championship will resume at Pau, France on June 3rd for
Rounds 7 and 8.
BULLET NEWS
PENALTIES AFTER RACE 1
Two drivers received penalties after today’s first race.
Gabriele Tarquini and Augusto Farfus were judged as responsible
for causing avoidable collisions: the pile up at the start
and the incident with Coronel and D’Aste respectively.
They will both be dropped 10 places on the grid for Race 1
at the next event in Pau.
MONDAY, MONDAY
Activities will continue at Valencia on Monday with five teams
testing. BMW Team Germany, Italy-Spain, and UK will be taking
part with all five cars. Alfa Romeo’s N.technology team
are planning to do a shakedown of their two cars while Chevrolet
will only test with Alain Menu’s Lacetti.
César Campaniço, winner of the Portuguese Touring
Car Championship’s three latest races, will also take
part in the test. Campaniço and his BMW 320si run by
Sport & You team will join WTCC for the next meeting in
Pau.
THEY SAID, THEY SAID…
James THOMPSON
“You can’t ask more than a pole and two wins,
I’m so happy. You can’t do it without the car
underneath you and for that I thank the team. All weekend
we had worked on being the fastest coming into the first corner
and having that made overtaking relatively easy. The championship
has just started for me.”
Jörg MÜLLER
“I’m not sure whether it was me or the car but
I wasn’t happy with things this weekend because I couldn’t
find that extra tenth. I knew it would be tough in the races
and I’d have to make no mistakes. To keep Andy behind
I had to use all three of my mirrors! The championship is
still in the early stages. I’m at the front of the queue
now and it is where I would like to stay.”
Andy PRIAULX
“I had a great race with Jörg and have no regrets
about not risking more to overtake him because that could
have meant the two of us out. Instead I had to wait for him
to make a mistake but he didn’t. I’m very pleased
to be back on the pace and in good form.”
Luca RANGONI
“I thoroughly enjoyed the start of the race because
I got to fight with Jörg and Andy. Unfortunately my car
developed a technical problem, I’m not sure what it
was, and from then on the race was very tough and I fell back.”
Sergio HERNÁNDEZ
“It has been an amazing day because we achieved a 1-2
in the independent category in both races. I’m happy
for the team and I hope for the next races to be able to fight
with Luca for the independent win, and maybe some more championship
points.”
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