NEWS ARCHIVE
Gabriele TARQUINI: “The cold conditions were good for us. It was good to get a lap at the start of Q2 and fortunately we chose to put new tyres on for our first run and it paid off. My second practice session was cut short as I tried to fly at the second chicane! I destroyed the flat bottom and the engine was leaking oil. We changed the engine as we had no penalty due to using it for the last three events, so to come out with a pole has been a lucky day for us.”
Gabriele Tarquini (1:38.265) claimed his second pole of the season for SR-Sport in Zolder today after rain brought an early end to proceedings. Teammate Jordi Gené (1:38.430) will line up alongside him on the grid for Race 1 while Chevrolet’s Alain Menu (1:38.494) will start third. Norbert Michelisz (1:39.072) finished top rookie in sixth for the Zengö-Dension Team while local racer Pierre-Yves Corthals (1:39.610) was top Independent in 13th on his season debut for Exagon Engineering.
In a closely fought practice, where the top 16 drivers were covered by less than a second, SR-Sports Jordi Gené emerged quickest despite the team having to fix a fuel pressure problem during the 30-minute session. His time of 1:40.046, posted right at the end, was just 0.034 seconds faster than teammate Tiago Monteiro (1:40.080). The session came to an early conclusion after Gabriele Tarquini bounced across the kerbs, breaking the oil sump on his SEAT León TDI and leaving a trail of oil.
Tiago Monteiro (1:44.492) led the way posting the fastest time of first practice in Zolder on his final lap of the session on a drying track, 0.093 and 0.389 seconds ahead of SR-Sport teammates Tom Coronel (1:44.585) and Jordi Gené (1:44.881) respectively. A damp track due to a mixture of early morning sunshine and showers, made it quite difficult to judge the track conditions as WTCC first practice began. Several drivers found themselves sideways across the kerbs and through the gravel.
The current FIA WTCC season will remain with the eleven already confirmed events. The possibility to replace the Mexican meeting – that was originally scheduled at Puebla on April 11th – has finally been dropped after the negotiations with interested event promoters did not meet with the championship’s logistic and promotional requirements. Marcello Lotti, CEO of KSO explained: “We did not find the conditions to seal a satisfactory agreement.”
Bamboo-engineering’s Darryl O’Young clocked a suprising fourth fastest lap in today’s test session that marked the team’s first appearance at the Belgian racetrack. “The team did a fantastic job. It’s the first time they and the Chevrolet Lacetti have been to the circuit and they did a great job to give me a good set up right from the beginning,” commented the Chinese driver.
Augusto Farfus (1:40.096) topped the timesheets in testing for his BMW Team RBM’s local event this afternoon in Zolder, finishing ahead of Yvan Muller (1:40.259) and teammate Andy Priaulx (1:40.311). Testing got underway at Circuit Zolder today as the World Touring Car Championship makes its first ever visit to the Belgian racetrack this weekend.
The WTCC rounds in Zolder will be the first FIA races in which gamers worldwide, sitting behind their own PC, will be able to race live against the real drivers using iOpener enabled technology. After months of preparation and testing of the systems in practice and regional races, the iOpener enabled technology will be used for the first time live in an official FIA event.
Monroe, the suspension leader, is Title Sponsor of the FIA WTCC Race of Belgium, that takes place this weekend at Zolder. In 2010, Monroe has intensified its commitment as the "Official suspension Partner" of the series and launched the "Monroe Performer" Trophy to reward the drivers who post the fastest lap times. At Zolder, Monroe reinforces its sponsorship status in WTCC being the Event Presenting Partner of the FIA WTCC Monroe Race of Belgium".
