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HOME / MOTORSPORTS / WTCC 2011 / Round 21 & 22 News Index
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Event summary
Date
Nov 4-6, 2011
Venue
Shanghai Tenma, China
Weather
Round 21 : Fine
Round 22 : Cloudy
Surface
Round 21 : Dry
Round 22 : Dry
Race Lap
Round 21 : 25Laps
Round 22 : 25Laps
(1Lap = 2,063m)
>> Report@@>> Result@@>> What's WTCC
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The FIA World Touring Car Championship was inaugurated in 2005, as one of the FIA's only three world championships at the time. Through the span of seven seasons since then, the series has successfully expanded its fan base all over the world, thanks to its worldwide traveling calendar and broadcasting by Eurosport, a sports-oriented satellite TV station.

The championship now made the first visit to mainland China this year. While the race meeting in Macau has been a regular fixture of the series, even after the Portuguese settlement had been retro-ceded to China in 1999, this was the very first time for the championship to race on a track in the country's mainland.

Shanghai Tianma Circuit was the venue of this first Chinese WTCC event. It is located within an hour's drive from the central part of Shanghai, the largest and most economically developed city in China and the 2,063m long race track, established in 2004, has a very compact layout and is technically demanding for the drivers. The circuit has already hosted a wide variety of two and four wheels motor sport events, including the China Touring Car Championship rounds, the highest level touring car race series in the country, for which YOKOHAMA has been appointed as the official tire supplier, as is the case with WTCC.

The 4th of October, 2011 marked a new chapter on the history of WTCC, as the cars hit the track for the first time in China's mainland for a 30 minute test session on Friday. The fastest driver in this session was Alan Menu, the winner of Race 1 in the Japanese round at Suzuka, in a factory prepared Chevrolet Cruze.

Looking back at statistics, it is clear that the Swiss has an exceptional winning rate at the first-time tracks. Since 2006, the second year of the championship, 30 races - 15 rounds - had been held at such tracks and Menu was the winningest of all drivers who had driven during this period, as he won six races out of 30. He was followed by Yvan Muller with four wins and Gabriele Tarquini and Robert Huff scored three each in those races. If you consider the number of their career victories, while the Frenchman has earned four wins at the first-time tracks out of 21 career wins, Muller has claimed six out of 17, so his winning rate at the new venues to the WTCC drivers is outstanding.

Menu dominated the qualifying session on Saturday again. From the damp surfaces when the Q1 began, the track was getting drier as the session went on. Under such difficult conditions, he registered the third fastest time in Q1 and then, in Q2 which was run on the mostly dry surfaces, he claimed the second consecutive pole position - the fourth of the season for him - since the Japanese round fortnight ago.

On Sunday morning, the rain had gone and the rays of the sun poured down on the track, while there were still some clouds in the sky. Race 1 - the 21st race of the series - began with the rolling start format on the totally dry surfaces. Because of narrow track width and tight corners, overtaking opportunities were limited at this circuit. And probably because it was a 25 lap race, twice as many laps as usual, everyone played safe at the first corner, so the top four drivers kept their grid positions when the field went through Turn 1. The early leader was Menu and he was followed by Huff, Colin Turkington and Norbert Michelisz, both driving BMW 320TCs.

Behind them, however, there were some fights for positions between the championship regular drivers. On Lap 2, Muller starting from the seventh grid overtook Tom Coronel's BMW and Tarquini's SEAT and moved up to fifth. To make things worse, the Italian lost three more positions a lap later, as Coronel and other two passed him, and then had damage to his car on the next lap due to contact with another car.

Meanwhile, the leading four drivers were going on rather quietly, keeping their running order from Lap 1. The fastest lap of this race was registered by Huff on Lap 5 but the average speed of the lap was 111.96kph which was very much lower than any other circuit that WTCC had ever visited.

But the status quo was broken when the race has just past its halfway point. On Lap 13, Turkington running in third caught a rare opportunity to overtake at Turn 1 and passed Huff to move up to second. And, behind Michelisz in fourth, Muller was under heavy pressure from Coronel.

But Muller was also trying to catch Michelisz in front of him. The reigning champion dove into the inside of the BMW driver at Turn 1 on Lap 17 but Michelisz narrowly defended his position, after a side-by-side run until the next corner. Then Muller did the exactly same thing at the first corner of the next lap and, this time, Hungarian in defense of his position run too wide at the corner, ending up with loosing a lot of ground, as he was passed by not only Muller but also Coronel and Kristian Poulsen as well.

In the leading pack, Turkington began to push Menu with five laps to go. The Briton weaved his car just behind the race leader's Chevrolet but the veteran Swiss kept his cool and didn't give Turkington the smallest opportunity.

On Lap 23, Michel Nykjaer and Charles Kaki Ng made contact on the track and an innocent victim, Yukinori Taniguchi, became involved in the incident. Among the three cars, the Japanese's Chevrolet Cruze was the most severely damaged, particularly on its suspension. While Taniguchi tried to finish the race, he lost control of his car on the penultimate lap and crashed into the tire barrier. Bouncing off the barrier, his car halted on the track, which caused the yellow flags for Sector 2.

Because of this, no overtaking was allowed in the section. Plus, there were some backmarkers to be lapped, which was the rare case in WTCC, as a lap of the circuit was very short, and these factors blocked the Turkington's pursuit of the lead position.

After all, as the statistics told, Menu claimed another victory at the first-time venue in Race 1 in Shanghai, following to the same feat he had achieved at Suzuka. This was his fifth win of the season. Turkington secured his YOKOHAMA Trophy by finishing in second overall which was the best result ever for his team in WTCC.

At the start of Race 2, Tarquini made a great getaway from the second grid. After the disappointing first race, the Italian beat all rear wheel drive cars at the standing start with his front wheel drive SEAT and took the lead position away from the pole sitting Huff. The Briton didn't allow Tarquini to pull away but, before completing the opening lap, they got into a tangle and Huff was forced to make a bit of excursion. While the Chevrolet driver managed to come back on the track, he had to give away the second to his teammate, Muller, who was running in fourth but passed Huff and Turkington in one move.

As the only other driver who still has a chance for the title crown besides the championship leader, the last thing Huff wanted was to allow Muller to expand the championship point advantage. So, on the second lap, the Briton overtook Turkington at Turn 1 and continued the pursuit to catch the teammate. On the other hand, Muller picked up an opportunity to challenge the race leader, Tarquini, on Lap 4 and, after a side-by-side run at Turn 2, he held the inside line to Turn 5, a deep left hander, to snatch the lead position in style.

Now leading the race, Muller gradually pulled away from the rest of the field which was still in fight for position and he eventually won the race by a ten second wide margin. His eighth victory of the season was a big step to the back-to-back championship title. Huff ended the day with double third place podium finishes and kept his own title hope alive. The drivers' championship is to be decided in the final round at Macau between the two Chevrolet teammates.

The race for the YOKOHAMA Trophy was led throughout by Turkington and he got the double victory in China. Another noteworthy result was Charles Kaki Ng's tenth overall finish. The 27 year old from Hong Kong had won the championship of Asian Touring Car series last year and this was the only second WTCC round for him, after having the first taste of the world championship at the previous Japanese round. Apart from the circuit racing, he also performed well in the Formula Drift series.
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