NEWS ARCHIVE

SR-Sport’s Tom Coronel suffered engine problems in qualifying yesterday and will start today’s Race 1 in Portugal from 15th on the grid. His SEAT León TDI was leaking oil during Q1 losing him nearly 0.8s in the final sector. The team applied for an engine changed which was granted by the Stewards, so the car was prepared overnight ready for this morning’s warm up.

Harry Vaulkhard had his best qualifying lap disallowed by the Stewards after he was reported as having driven his bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti with all the four wheels out of the track at T16 while clocking his best time. The young Briton had clocked a 1:56.828 that was worthy of the 13th position on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1 and third place in the Independents’ Trophy. Because of the penalty he was allocated a best lap of 1:57.628, which demoted him to 17th.

Tiago MONTEIRO: “I’ve not had many poles in WTCC so I’m glad to get another one, especially at home. We were pessimistic really as realistically we thought it would be impossible but we knew if we could get a good clear lap we could do something good. In Q1 I had a misunderstanding with another car. I thought that was it and I would be starting from the back of the grid but the team did an amazing job to change almost the whole of the right rear in six minutes and the car still felt good!”

Tiago Monteiro claimed his first WTCC pole position since 2007 for his home event at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve, today. The Portuguese driver recorded a quickest time of 1:55.372 despite an earlier collision with Andy Priaulx’s BMW and will start alongside Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller (1:55.425) on the front row for tomorrow’s Race 1 ahead of BMW’s Augusto Farfus (1:55.675). Colin Turkington (1:56.698) ended the session tenth with Norbert Michelisz (1:55.991) in sixth.

Augusto Farfus (1:56.765) finished top in the second free practice at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve today. In the final minute, SR-Sport’s Tom Coronel (1:56.925) recorded his best time of the day so far to move up to second ahead of Rookie Challenge racer Michel Nykjær (1:56.938) in third. In a closely fought session the top 16 drivers recorded fastest times within a second of each other ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying for the WTCC Race of Portugal.

Jordi Gené (1:56.232) topped Practice 1 in Portimão ahead of this weekend’s WTCC Race of Portugal. The Spaniard knocked home favourite and SR-Sport teammate Tiago Monteiro off the top spot at the halfway point and remained quickest until the end of the 30-minute session. Rookie driver Fredy Barth (1:56.359) put in a great lap, just a couple of minutes before the end, to finish second overall ahead of Monteiro (1:56.570) in third.

BMW Team RBM’s Andy Priaulx (1:56.810) finished quickest in Portimão testing as the FIA WTCC prepares for its first ever event at the Autódromo Internacional de Algarve this weekend. The WTCC drivers had their first taste of the 4.6km circuit in beaming sunshine this afternoon with Rob Huff’s last lap of 1:56.890 splitting the BMW’s at the top, demoting Augusto Farfus (1:56.890) to third.

The 10th WTCC round in Portimão this weekend will mark Yokohama’s 100th race as the championship’s Official Tyre Supplier since the Japanese company was appointed by the FIA in 2006. To celebrate the event, the WTCC cars sport a 100th race logo on windscreen stripes and race number plates. 37,956 tyres (dry and wet) have been supplied by Yokohama to WTCC teams since 2006.

In preparation for the British event of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, Andy Priaulx set a new Brands Hatch lap record — for the category… London taxi with two girls in the back. The test was organised by the British newspaper The Sun, for which Priaulx is Sport's columnist. At the wheel of The Sun's famous London cab, with two gorgeous girls – Ruth and Danni – on the back seat, Andy completed a lap of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in 1:33.66, at an average speed of… 74.72kph!