2011 World Touring Car Championship

[Bram Hengeveld]

Its unbelievable as everybody saw this coming. Its time that the FIA/KSO stop ignoring Zandvoort and quickly replace that silly African GP!

 

[Yann Laprevotte]

Oh snap.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

too bad it had to happen to an African state, but trackwise: good riddance, this has always been a laugh, never real racing.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Reigning touring car world champion Yvan Müller released two photos on his Facebook page that show the new Cruze for the 2011 season.

The WTCC starts next weekend in Curitiba, Brazil and the community has start discussing it heavily already. Join the discussions in our Motorsport Forum.

 

[Saul Boucher]

Not a bad looking car... but one thing is for certain. They need to hire themselves Marcel vd Aa, Paul Wood, or one of the other very talented skinners here at RD to design them some good livery! lol.

 

[Ihab Abbas]

I like this car:doublethumb:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

They need to hire very talented skinners here at RD to design them some good livery! lol.

For sure Chevy every year applies for the title most terrible car livery. A bit of paint here and there would change the look completely.

On the other hand it does stand out in the rest of the field of cars and is therefor very visible.

Curious if Chevy will claim the driver and team title again this year as they are the only factory team remaining in the series.

 

[Andras Csepecz]

Big Like!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

So the winterbreak is over and in the weekend of March 20 the first two rounds of the WTCC will be held on the Curitiba circuit in Brazil for the seaons opener.

As always Eurosport 1 and 2 will broadcast the Qualification, Warm-up and both races live on (HD) TV.

TIME SCHEDULE IN CET
Testing: Fri 18:00

18:30
Free Practice 1: Sat 11:55

12:25
Free Practice 2: Sat 15:30

16:00
Qualifying Q1: Sat 18:00

18:20 (live)
Qualifying Q2: Sat 18:25

18:35 (live)
Warm Up: Sun 12:15

12:30 (live)
Race 1: Sun 17:05

17:30 (live)
Race 2: Sun 18:20

18:45 (live)


Let the talks (and races) start :thumb:

Update:

Click this link for the full race recap!

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

i hope Tom Coronel will be a titel contender not only the 3 Chevys

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I've just read that Coronel, Tarquini and Monteiro are not allowed to compete in the Yokohama Ind. Trophy this year despite the fact that neither one of them drives with a works car this year.

Sometimes the rules and politics in the series make you wonder eh

 

[Adam Vaughan]

I've just read that Coronel, Tarquini and Monteiro are not allowed to compete in the Yokohama Ind. Trophy this year despite the fact that neither one of them drives with a works car this year.

Sometimes the rules and politics in the series make you wonder eh

Isnt it to do with the Diesels are not aloud to compete in the series?

 

[Mike Bell]

right - set the races to record on sky so i wont miss them

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Nope, Nykjaer and the other diesel boys are allowed as Indies.

 

[Zeynel Babacan]

tonight is on Eurosport at 22:30 GMT a special WTCC magazin with Tom Coronel
don't forget to watch

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Hmm. Race 2 grid will be reversed top 10 in Q1 now. Quite interesting tbh, I like it! Now drivers will have to fight to get into top 10, but finish last of them at the same time. I wonder how much risk they'll take! If they want to be safe they have to push but then they'll have a worse position in race 2, but if they take too much risks and aim for 10th, someone from behind can possibly kick them out of top 10 resulting in a bad grid position for both races!

 

[ufunacaoenn]

OMG I am starting to get the chills the closer we get to practice 1.

 

[Yann Laprevotte]

Hmm. Race 2 grid will be reversed top 10 in Q1 now. Quite interesting tbh, I like it! Now drivers will have to fight to get into top 10, but finish last of them at the same time. I wonder how much risk they'll take! If they want to be safe they have to push but then they'll have a worse position in race 2, but if they take too much risks and aim for 10th, someone from behind can possibly kick them out of top 10 resulting in a bad grid position for both races!

Sounds very artificial to me.

Not to mention the huge difference between 10th and 11th... 10th--> possible points for race 1, then potential victory in race 2. 11th and beyond--> week-end basically screwed, even if you climb a bit through the field in race 1, you'll still be placed back to your Q1 position in race 2.

If they wanted to stop the top 8 reversed farce, they could've done a random reversed grid like in BTCC. But I guess they wanted to boost the audience rates for qual maybe?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Awesome picture taken by Frits van Eldik (F1 photographer)

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

season has finally started:

"The WTCC drivers hit the track for the first time at Curitiba for a shake down.
The session was due to last 90 minutes, however it was red-flagged with 20 minutes still on the clock and not resumed after Aleksei Dudukalo lost his SEAT TDi at the exit of the Esse da Alta and crashed heavily into the inside barriers. The Russian driver escaped unscathed while his car suffered from heavy damage.
Tiago Monteiro and his SEAT TDi created a surprise by setting the fastest lap of 1:24.360 ahead of the new Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 Turbo of Alain Menu (1:24.440) and Yvan Muller (1:24.446). The fourth fastest lap was clocked by Franz Engstler’s BMW 320 TC (1:24.472).
The top ten drivers were all covered by 0.6 seconds with Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo in 10th position (1:25.036).
Gabriele Tarquini and Javier Villa did not post any lap time as their cars sat in the respective garages for the last adjustments."

from the wtcc homepage