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N.Technology Alfa Romeo’s James Thompson has made up two FIA
World Touring Car Championship positions after an
accomplished drive saw him finish second in today’s first
race at Brands Hatch. Thompson had
to defend his second place for the first half of the 16-lap
race as Jordi Gené pushed hard from third. In the closing
stages, however, the Spaniard faded leaving Thompson free to
challenge Alain Menu for the win.
Despite creating some promising opportunities, Thompson had
to settle for second, leap-frogging Gabriele Tarquini and
Nicola Larini to sit level on points with Menu.
Third across the
start line
was Colin Turkington’s BMW who
overtook Gené on the
penultimate lap. Gené got a
fantastic start and promoted
himself from sixth to third in
his diesel powered SEAT León.
His SEAT Sport team-mate, Tiago
Monteiro, who should have lined
up third, frustratingly had to
start from the pits after he
suffered a fuel feeding problem. Tarquini braked late
coming into Paddock Hill Bend on
the first lap. On the outside of
him was Jörg Müller who took a
tap, spun across the track and
collected Larini's
Chevrolet into the gravel with
him. Müller continued and
eventually finished 14th but
Larini did not rejoin.
The incident meant the
deployment of the safety car for
two laps. On the restart the
field kept position but Yvan
Muller was making ground on
Turkington for fourth place. The
pair were side by side at
Hawthorn Bend but Turkington
defended successfully. The Team
RAC driver then went on to catch
up with Gené but while chasing
his tail Muller managed to
reduce the gap and consequently
the orange BMW had to defend
again. Eventually on lap 15 both
Turkington and Muller overtook
Gené.
Rob Huff and Andy Priaulx
spent most of the race looking
at the rear of Pierre-Yves
Corthals' independent SEAT León,
However, on lap 15 Huff overtook
the Belgian at Druids Bend for
sixth place. Corthals quickly
shut the door on Priaulx but
persistence meant the reigning
champion took seventh place on
the last lap. As a result he now
leads the championship. Corthals
claimed the independent win. Félix Porteiro will line up
on pole for the second race. The
BMW Team Italy-Spain driver
finished ninth but due to the
fact Turkington is not eligible
for points and finished in the
top eight, the reverse grid has
been extended to nine.
These results meant that Andy
Priaulx re-took the championship
lead, two points ahead of
Augusto Farfus.
Thompson’s team-mate Olivier Tielemans held his own in the
rolling start to make up six places and run in 15th. After a
brief safety car period, however, the Dutchman lost some
pace and finished 20th. |
