V-WTCC: Roland Ehnström crowned World Champion
Judgement Day has passed. The V-WTCC Grand Finale has ended and the World Championship title has been claimed!
On Saturday the 4th of October, around half past four crowds and cameras gathered around the
RaceRoom™ Game Park to witness the climax of an intense season of simulated racing. And they were given one hell of an experience…
The qualification brought us the first surprises. France’s
Bastien Bartsch, winner of the Brand Hatch Semi-Final, stunned the spectators with a blistering 1.56.9, arguably the mother of all hotlaps on Monza. Several competitors weren’t far behind as they managed to breed some 57’s during the 30 minutes in which the grid was formed. Qualification was a clear BMW show, but the races weren’t necessarily that…
Race one was a thriller. Bartsch had to take on all skills to stay ahead of an unleased
Roland Ehnström, who was appearently still in the winning mood after having won the Mantorp Semi-Final in Sweden. These French and Swedish drivers switched positions multiple times in the cleanest of fights only to end up on the finish line pretty much at the same time. Pretty much, because there was a 0.04 second gap between them; hardly visible for the human eye. Ehnström took the win and Bartsch was the first to congratulate him. Behind them the surprises stacked high.
Marco Schade took his Honda to the only remaining podium spot and thus scored one of very few Honda-successes in this season. At the right time though. Chevrolet managed to get hold of the fourth and fifth position with
Daniel Strück and
Michael Storm. They were clearly ready to strike.
Race two was more messy, but no less intense. The top three drivers all got caught up in a some incidents and opened the door for the competition. Marco Schade clearly suffered most of this. His race two win was taken from him by the race direction after a thorough review of his incident with Ehnström. The latter recovered and climbed again from ten to three. Bartsch too kept his mind on the job and brought home a second place as in the first race. Chevrolet’s luck was troubled by bad luck for Strück and Storm. The latter losing four positions in the very last corner, wasting a podium finish both in the race and possibly overall as well.. The race two win was claimed by
Markus Könönen, who was nowhere to be found in the first race, but made up for it handsomely in the second. With his win he climbed straight up to the overall podium right behind Bartsch and Ehnström. Bartsch and Ehnström tied for first with an
equal amount of points and thus their race time would decide who would win the Chevrolet HHR and the World Championship title. It was race one that proved fastest. In an incredible 18 minutes and 2 seconds, 12 seconds faster than the WTCC race,
Ehnström beat Bartsch by 0.04 seconds.
The V-WTCC World Champion of 2008 is thus Roland Ehnström from Sweden.
More information:
www.v-wtcc.com
Full interview with Roland Ehnström:
click here
TV-Coverage:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXwKlKMNVrU[/media]
