FIA WTCC newsletter 18
ROUTE TO: VALENCIA, SPAIN
The 5th and 6th rounds of the FIA WTCC will take place in
Spain, at Valencia's Circuit Ricardo Tormo on May 17th and
18th. This is the fifth consecutive visit of the FIA Touring
Cars to the Spanish stadium-like racetrack.
Alfa Romeo dominated the 2004 FIA European Touring Car Championship
meeting, with Fabrizio Giovanardi and Gabriele Tarquini who
took one victory apiece. The following year, on the FIA WTCC
inaugural season, local hero Jordi Gené started from
pole position to give the new SEAT León its first win,
while Jörg Müller won Race 2 for BMW. In 2006 Alfa
Romeo won again with Augusto Farfus in the first race and
Jörg Müller in the second. Last year's event was
the Italian manufacturer's swan song as James Thompson claimed
a double victory after two breathtaking races.
Thompson will make his first appearance in the 2008 WTCC
at the wheel of the brand new Honda Accord Euro R built by
N.technology and JAS Motorsport.
The Valencian event will mark the beginning of WTCC's European
season after the first two race meetings held in Brazil and
Mexico. The activities on the track will start on Friday,
May 16th, with a 30-minute test session at 3.00pm giving the
teams the opportunity to shake their cars down after they
were shipped from Mexico.
YVAN MULLER FASTEST IN OSCHERSLEBEN
SEAT Sport's Yvan Muller set the fastest time in the official
test at Oschersleben on Tuesday and Wednesday. With a lap
of 1:35.227 clocked on Wednesday afternoon, the Frenchman
managed to beat Robert Huff's fastest time of 1:35.324 from
the previous day. Most of the drivers who took part in the
test were able to be faster than last year's pole position
set by Alain Menu's Chevrolet at 1:36.291.
Huff and team-mate Nicola Larini emerged as second and third
fastest behind Muller with a gap of only one tenth of a second
behind the leader. BMW Team Germany's men Augusto Farfus and
Jörg Müller were classified fourth and fifth respectively,
one further tenth behind.
James Thompson continued to develop the new Honda Accord
Euro R car built by N.technology and JAS Motorsport. After
clocking up an impressive third fastest time on day one, the
Briton focused on the race set up. "With only free practice
left at Valencia before we race, it was essential that we
focused on assessing the car under race conditions,"
he explained.
On their first appearance alongside their fellow WTCC competitors,
Russian Bears Motorsport were also impressive. Their LADA
110 car driven by Viktor Shapovalov completed only 15 laps
on Tuesday before being halted due to an engine failure. However,
the Russian machine hit the track again on day two and Shapovalov
managed to dramatically improve his lap times, reducing the
gap to 2.5 seconds, while his Dutch team-mate Jap van Lagen
set a fastest lap of 1:36.476, which was only 1.2 seconds
off Yvan Muller's fastest time of the day.
This was a very encouraging performance in view of LADA's
maiden races at Valencia next week.
BUREAU LIMIT TDI ENGINE SPEED
The Touring Car Bureau have issued a decision to limit the
engine speed of the SEAT León TDI cars. From the next
event in Valencia and until further notice, the engine speed
of the turbo-diesel SEAT cars will be limited to 4100 revs
per minute.
At the same time the Bureau confirmed the decision issued
before the previous meeting in Puebla to limit the supercharged
air pressure, the fuel rail pressure and the fuel/air ratio
to the average maximum values measured measured with the FIA
homologated data logger during the Curitiba event. This supercharged
air pressure limit will be corrected by the atmospheric pressure
ratio between Curitiba and Valencia.
OTHER BUREAU'S DECISIONS
The Bureau have issued two other decisions, which are also
valid from the next event in Valencia and until further notice:
- reduction of the homologated minimum weight of the BMW 320si
car driven by Alessandro Zanardi by 15 kg;
- the possibility to adjust the weight of the N.technology
Honda Accord Euro R car at any moment during the events.
THOMPSON'S FIRST PODIUM OF THE SEASON
James Thompson claimed his first podium of the season as
he finished third in the Danish Touring Car Championship's
Race 1 last weekend at the Jyllandsringen.
On his maiden DTC appearance in the Hartmann Racing's Honda
Accord Euro R, Thompson finished all the weekend's races in
the points: "I was very pleased to get some points and
finish all three races, because historically the team has
not been strong at this track," Thompson said. "There
are definitively some tough competitors out there, and I enjoyed
the cut and thrust of it and look forward to the next race."
In Race 1, Thompson made to the end in third behind Tom Pedersen's
and Jan Magnussen's BMW 320si cars, and then he was classified
sixth and fourth in Race 2 and Race 3 respectively. He will
continue racing in the Danish Championship when there is no
clash with WTCC.
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