2011 World Touring Car Championship

[Bram Hengeveld]

Hmm diesels still up front with obsolete cars, hmmm

 

[Hans Sneep]

Little update:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Five hours left to Q1, then the season really starts and we know who is fast and who is not

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

yup hope Coronel is the fastest guy

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

an other video with Tom Coronel

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Huff fastest in rain training, BMWs far behind.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

second training session finished:
The second session took place on a dry track and the Chevrolet team offered a proof of their competitiveness filling the top four spots of the time-sheet.
Reigning champion Muller set a provisional fastest time of 1:22.913 on his first lap out, but he was immediately ousted by Huff who clocked at 1:22.596. However, Muller struck back completing a lap of 1:22.455.
Bueno (1:22.654) and Menu (1:22.796) were classified third and fourth respectively.
The four Chevrolet cars were covered by three tenths while Tarquini’s SEAT in fifth position was left nearly eight tenths behind Menu.
Engstler emerged as the fastest of the BMW and Yokohama Trophy drivers posting the sixth fastest time (1:23.619), beating Coronel by seven thousandths of a second.
The Volvo of Dahlgren set the 16th fastest lap before coming back to the pits, while Lee’s BMW stopped on the track after only one lap because of a problem with the throttle pedal.

from wttc site

 

[Franco Carnero]

Chevrolet showed their hand in the second free practice session, with all four of the Global Racing Engine powered Cruzes topping the time sheets.
Yvan Muller and Rob Huff swapped best lap times in the 30 minute session, with the Frenchman ending up on top at the end. The session was dry but with rain still threatening the Curitiba circuit.

Cacá Bueno was third ahead of Alain Menu, with Gabriele Tarquini the closest driver to the Chevrolets in his SEAT León, 1.2 seconds down on Muller’s best time.

Franz Engstler was the top placed independent and BMW driver in sixth.

The new format qualifying session takes place next at 14:00 local time, with the grid for race two decided from the top 10 results of Q1 reversed. Q2's results will set the grid for tomorrow's first race one’s with the fastest driver starting from pole.

01 Yvan Muller 1:22.455
02 Robert Huff +0.141
03 Cacá Bueno +0.199
04 Alain Menu +0.341
05 Gabriele Tarquini +1.157
06 Franz Engstler +1.164
07 Tom Coronel +1.171
08 Kristian Poulsen +1.303
09 Tiago Monteiro +1.328
10 Fredy Barth +1.543

Source: touringcartimes.com
Photo: WTCC Media

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

So the qualy has finished Nice new cars on the grid for sure. But the turbo totally kills the characteristic BMW engine sound.

Curious what will happen tomorrow with the new starting procedure based on the qualification.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

I love the orange Cruze of Bueno

 

[Franco Carnero]

Rob Huff has taken pole position for the opening round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship at Curitiba, whilst SEAT secure race two’s front row with the new format qualifying.
Huff had a lucky escape in Q1, dropping to eleventh place and almost missing the top ten qualifying shootout as the chequered flag waived, but his last lap moved him out of harm's way into fifth place.

The 31-year-old then produced the first lap under 1:22 all weekend on his first run in Q2 to secure an all Chevrolet 1-2-3, with 2010 champion team-mate Yvan Muller second and Cacá Bueno third in the orange Chevrolet Cruze.

Michel Nykjaer will be the best placed SEAT in both races after qualifying fourth for race one, as well as being classified tenth in the Q1, which secures the Dane pole position for the second race under the new qualifying format.

Kristian Poulsen will be the highest starting BMW in fifth for race one on his return to the Engstler Motorsport team.

Tom Coronel finished eighth in both sessions, which means the Dutchman will start race two from third place, the highest placed driver with the 1.6 litre turbo behind the two SEATs of Michel Nykjaer and Fredy Barth.

Chevrolet's Alain Menu qualified in 11th place, just missing the top ten shootout in his Chevrolet Cruze, and will start from that position in both races.

Only 19 cars are set to start the race as Fabio Fabiani in the Proteam BMW 320si was one second outside of the 107% maximum. Although he can apply for force majeure, it’s unlikely to be granted as the normally aspirated engined BMW has been consistently off the pace in every session.

01 Robert Huff 1:21.758
02 Yvan Muller +0.389
03 Cacá Bueno +0.785
04 Michel Nykjaer +0.874
05 Kristian Poulsen +0.920
06 Gabriele Tarquini +1.084
07 Tiago Monteiro +1.167
08 Tom Coronel +1.337
09 Fredy Barth +1.580
10 Franz Engstler +9.769

Source: touringcartimes.com
Photo: WTCC Media

 

[Mark Guy]

anybody have a link that I can watch this tomorrow?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Huffy did great during Q2. Excellent clean and super fast lap! Impressive time.

Looking forward what will happen tomorrrow

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

Nope Mark. Only sometimes give www.fiawtcc.com live streaming

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Try it here tomorrow:
http://www.myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=motorsports

I watched the quali there as for some reason on hungarian Eurosport 2 there was football today, there'll be a short quali (prob. Q2) tomorrow, warmup, and the races on Eurosport 1.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

both races back to back on German Eurosport 01 tomorrow afternoon, second one will be live, first one stored and transmitted to fit the timeslot just ahead.

 

[Mark Guy]

thanks guys, I will give them a try later.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

And Eurosport broadcasts the races in HD

 

[ufunacaoenn]

And Eurosport broadcasts the races in HD

That is awesome.

I am so looking forward to the races. But first let me enjoy GP2 Asia.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

lucky Chevys: this is the latest news from WTCC:

The penalties awarded by the Stewards after today’s qualifying demoted Fredy Barth and Darryl O’Young, but also promoted Alain Menu to pole position for tomorrow’s Race 2.
Barth and O’Young were stripped of all their qualifying times for different infringements.
The crew of the Hong Kong man worked on his car under parc fermé condition which resulted in O’Young being demoted from 15th to 19th.
Barth was penalised for missing twice the red light at the weighing bay and straight-cutting a chicane during Q1. The Stewards decided to exclude him from the qualifying results and pushed him to the back of the grids for both Race 1 and Race 2.
As a consequence of Barth’s exclusion, Menu was promoted to 10th in the final results of Q1 that also meant pole position for Race 2.
Franz Engstler too had his fastest lap time disallowed from the Q2 results for straight-cutting a chicane. However this did not affect his tenth position.