Now, when everyone heard the announcement last year on July 4th that Chevrolet were pulling their works support from RML for 2013, many people cheered, hoping that the domination of the American manufacturer would come to an end with Honda and Lada joining the field with their own works teams for the 2013 season...
No...
Well as Monza, Marrakech and Salzburgring proved, having an RML built Chevrolet Cruze was the car to have. Muller has taken more Pole Positions than anyone else this year whilst Muller, Nykjaer and Nash have taken mutiple wins in the car RML, NIKA Racing and Bamboo Engineering all race respectively...and the two races from Porto were no surprise either.
What Porto proved, like the season so far, is that the car to have in the FIA World Touring Car Championship this year is an RML built Chevrolet Cruze.
However now Spanish Touring Car sensation Pepe Oriola has joined the Chevy ranks after his Tuenti Racing Team agreed a deal with RML to run a Cruze from Porto onwards, receiving support from RML for the rest of the season and my god did that boy fly through the streets of Porto in his blue Chevy...
However lets get down to business regarding the two WTCC races from Porto. Now while the Chevys were racing to the front, SEAT, Honda, Lada and BMW had a mixed weekend.
After qualifying, RML had taken the front row with Muller on pole and Tom Chilton taking second. However I will point out that once again in qualifying Chilton was the faster of the two cars but not when it mattered. That boy will take a pole position at some stage this year and the Chevrolet Cruze is the car to do it in.
In Qualifying, after the whole session was finished, it turned out a timing glitch had occurred and the final grid was adjusted. This affected Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport BMW the most. The Dutchman qualified 10th originally for race one which in turn gave him Pole for race two. After the adjusted grid he dropped to 11th for both races. Coronel showed his unhappiness by not taking part in Sunday morning Warm Up...
The shakeup also helped out Tarquini and Oriola. Oriola crashed after his first run in Q2 which originally left him 12th. Tarquini was left in 6th. After the correction Tarquini went up to 5th and Oriola to 6th. Thompson dropped from 5th to 7th whilst Huff, Basseng, Nash, Coronel and Engstler lost a place each.
This left the race one grid as Muller, Chilton, Nykjaer, Michelisz, Tarquini, Oriola, Thompson, Huff, Basseng and Nash in 10th and now on Pole for race two.
Still with me? Good... At least this time the grid wasnt as confusing as the "Salzburgring Fiasco"...
Anyway...
Muller led Chilton in race one to another RML 1-2 finish on the podium. At the start, Tarquini and Oriola both passed Michelisz to run 4th and 5th behind Nykjaer in his NIKA Racing Cruze (Oh look, Chevy 1-2-3...wonder how many times we saw that last year...). Huffy managed to get past Thompson in a drag race and its not the last time we'll see these two battle. Its becoming a regular thing now with battles between the two brits on track at Moscow and Austria earlier in the year.
Honda suffered a complete nightmare in race one. Michelisz was doing well until he hit a wall whilst on lap 8 when Tarquini suffered the same turbo issues Monteiro had suffered with in Saturday Practice retiring the Civic there and then. Monteiro managed to salvage a 9th place on home turf which is better than his luck has been this year.
That Honda Civic reminds me of the early Adrian Newey designed Red Bulls in F1. Fast, but fragile. The Civic has taken a win already this year, but Honda's title hopes may have to wait until 2014...
However, the final fling of the race came on lap 10 when a recovery truck joined the track to remove Michelisz's Honda only to have Franz Engstler run into the back of it. The German BMW Independent driver pitted with front end damage but himself. Something similar happened to him back in 2009 when Engstler was leading the race at Pau when a safety car period was called due to cars stricken on the french street circuit only to find himself T-Boned by the safety car coming out of the pits, driven by the Chief of Police no less!
Trust me, look that up on YouTube. You have to feel for poor Franz Engstler...
At the restart, Coronel passed Basseng for 7th whilst Tom Boardman on his and Special Tuning Racings return to the series since the Slovakiaring was having a competitive showing until contact with Darryl O'Young retired the SEAT out on the spot. Poor reward for all the hard work theyve done to get the lone Leon racing competitively again.
Unfortunately, the damage from the weekends racing has meant that Boardman and his team will now re-appear at Sonoma in the USA.
So a Chevy 1-2-3 on the podium with Nykjaer 3rd followed by Oriola, Huffy, Thompson, Coronel, D'Aste, Monteiro in the surviving Honda and Basseng taking more points in the Munnich Motorsport SEAT Leon. With Tarquini's retirement, Nykjaer moved up to 2nd in the Overall Drivers Title and kept his lead in the Independent Drivers Title chase.
Race Two was a different matter...
Nash made an electric start from the grid to take off like a scolded rabbit into a lead he wouldnt lose whilst Huff over took Basseng and began the hunt to try and catch Nash. Chilton moved up from 7th to 6th passing Oriola, but Oriola fought back and took back the position and kept Chilton offline as Muller, Coronel and Bennani passed the englishman. Unfortunately this year Chiltons race two's havent been as rewarding as his race one's.
With his race one podium dedicated to his late friend Allan Simonsen, "The Great Dane" began his hunt for another 3rd place by passing Thompson and then Basseng. Nykjaer then caught Huffy in the SEAT but try as he might, he couldn't pass the 2012 WTCC Champion although after the race Huff admitted he was suffering with braking issues late in the race. Nykjaer got his podium though and was happy he could put on such a competitive showing in memory of his late friend.
Whilst Nykjaer hassled Huff for second, Oriola, Thompson and Muller provided the late race entertainment. Oriola had passed Thommo on lap 4 but the Spanish Superstar (Can you tell I'm a fan???) had cut the track in doing so. He gave the position back but this left Thommo trying to fend off Muller and fight Oriola for position until the end of the race. With 3 of the WTCC's best racing on the close confines of the Portuguese street circuit, it was close but fair racing between them.
Oriola would go on to pass Basseng late in the race and the finishing order would be Nash from Huff and Nykjaer followed by Oriola, Basseng, Thompson, Muller, Coronel, Chilton and Bennani.
Again SEAT showed good pace with the Munnich Motorsport entries of Huff and german Marc Basseng in the thick of the action in both races. Considering this is the team that last year won the FIA World GT1 sportscar title, they have adapted well to the Touring Car arena and the hectic format of the WTCC.
James Thompson also showed again that the Lada Granta Sport has improved in both its qualifying and race pace. When he has an incident-less weekend, Thommo and the Lada are regular Q2 competitors capable of a top five grid position and also capable of fighting with and fending off more developed cars like the BMW 320TC, SEAT Leon WTCC and the all conquering Chevrolet Cruze. This bodes well for the future and can only spur on Lada to better things in WTCC.
Porto signalled the end of the European season for the WTCC and the show now moves to begin its "Rest of the World" leg beginning at the new Termas De Rio Hondo Circuit in Argentina on 3rd and 4th of August. This is a late replacement for the usual Brazilian round from Curitiba, but like Moscow Raceway, it offers another level playing field to the WTCC drivers and teams with no clear answer as to how each car or driver will do...
Unless of course you are Yvan Muller in an RML Chevrolet Cruze...in which case you're a sure bet for the win...
Muller leads the drivers overall title chase with a 122 point lead over Michel Nykjaer and a gap of 144 points over 3rd place James Nash. Factor into this that Muller has the most amount of wins this season followed by Nykjaer and Nash who both have 2 race wins to their credit and it becomes clear as to why these three drivers head the table. For Muller, the second leg of the championship will be to make sure he has a points advantage that can't be beaten when the series arrives at Macau in November.
Because as Yvan well knows... Anything can happen in Macau...
Well until then, its a quiet off season until August when the BTCC, WTCC and DTM return to action. In the meantime I, like the rest of you, will be enjoying this glorious sunshine while its around.
So be careful, pile on the suncream and enjoy the summer!!
Cheers
Phil.
No comments:
Post a Comment