Tiago Monterio took pole for his first time in the WTCC
Courtesy of Seat
Chevrolet
Seat
BMW
Alfa Romeo
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Chevrolet
ANDERSTORP, 28 July 2007 – It was again a memorable qualifying in Anderstorp, ahead of tomorrow’s Race of Sweden, the 13th and 14th rounds of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), as weather conditions changed dramatically during the 30-minute decisive session. It started under heavy rain and ended with an almost dry track and a superb battle for pole position.
The Chevrolet Lacettis led the pack during most of the session, first with Rickard Rydell under the rain, then with Nicola Larini, who eventually finished second and will start tomorrow in Race 1 from the first row. Rob Huff scored the third-fastest time in the closing laps, while Rydell was fifth and Alain Menu 17th, after having suffered grip problems in the treacherous conditions.
The Chevrolet boys are very well placed for tomorrow’s races, where weather conditions will doubtlessly play a key role.
* QUOTES
Nicola Larini (2nd) : “It’s a dream to be in first row in such conditions and with such a high ballast. It is a pity to have lost the pole position in the final seconds of the session, but second is a very good result anyway, I am really happy. The first half of the session, in the wet, was quite difficult. The track was very slippery and I could not avoid spinning in turn 1. Then, as the track started drying up and I put my second set of tyres, everything went well and I could make some very fast laps. Unfortunately, in the very last one, I lost some time overtaking another car, and could not improve further. For tomorrow, it is difficult to say whether it would be better for us to have a wet or dry track, but personally I would prefer if it rains!”
Rob Huff (3rd): “I kept the set-up for dry conditions we had worked on in the morning and just waited for the track to start drying. We had some pretty precise weather forecast pointing to that, and we took the right decision. The dry line came out very quickly and I could do three-four very good laps. It’s nice to be in the top three in qualifying for the second time in a row.”
Rickard Rydell (5th): “Things went very well for me in the wet, I could keep the top position in the time sheet for half of the session. Then, as the track started to dry up, it was tougher. I think we changed our final set of tyres a little bit too late and in my final lap I also had a lot of traffic.”
Alain Menu (17th): “It was a difficult qualifying for me. I had little grip in my car and we need to understand why. It was really difficult to try to go faster as I had a lot of understeer entering in the corners and not a very good grip when steering and braking. I hope we can find why before tomorrow.”
Eric Nève: “Three cars in the top five is really a good result, we are very happy, and one car in each of the three first rows in the grid of race 1, with a rolling start, is not a bad way to start your Sunday! Still, it is difficult to predict what can happen tomorrow, in such fast-changing weather conditions. I think that for us rain could be a good thing, as we proved the Lacettis are very competitive in the wet and this could level the impact of weight ballast.”
Seat
Monteiro shines through the Swedish clouds
Even the heavy Swedish rain can't put a dampener on the spirits of Portugal's Tiago Monteiro, it seems. After being fastest in both free practice sessions, Monteiro then scored both his first pole position for SEAT Sport and the team's first qualified pole of the season. Tiago's last-minute grab of pole position was just one highlight of the 30-minute qualifying session for SEAT Sport, as Jordi Gene qualified a superb 6th in the first public appearance of the new TDI-engined Leon.
The other turbodiesel SEAT Sport car, that of Yvan Muller, starts round 13 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship from 14th on the grid after transmission problems, while Gabriele Tarquini will start from 7th and Michel Jourdain Jr from 19th after both drivers were caught out by being on wet tyres on a drying track.
In addition, the fastest Independent driver was Roberto Colciago, whose Leon qualified in 8th position. A ten-place penalty imposed after an incident in Porto, however, means the Italian driver drops to 18th on the grid.
Tiago Monteiro (SEAT Leon no. 18): "I'm absolutely delighted, I have to say. Nigel Clyde, my engineer, did a great job to set the car up so well and so my thanks to him and the whole team. The car worked really well this morning and so I was hoping it would stay dry because it's such a lottery in the rain, but I took a few risks in the last few laps and it all worked out. I was the last to cross the line, I think."
Jordi Gene (SEAT Leon TDI no. 9): "It was a very changeable session, with wet, damp, then some dry patches. I was happy with my first few laps, but then it was very slippery after I changed tyres and so I wondered if there was a problem with one of the tyre pressures. I pushed hard at the end and P6 is a reasonable position in a new car; it's not as agile as the petrol car, but there's a long way to go in its development."
Gabriele Tarquini (SEAT Leon no. 11): "I was in pole position until about ten minutes from the end of the session but unfortunately I was on the wrong tyres for the last laps and I lost lots of places. If it's dry tomorrow, the BMWs will be a lot stronger than they were today; I like rain, so it won't be a problem for me if it's wet."
Yvan Muller (SEAT Leon TDI no. 12): "The car's driveshaft broke and there was no chance for me to make it back to the pitlane. When I stopped, I think I was in the top three but the track was drying. There was no way I could have been on pole - I'm about a hundred kilos heavier than Tiago - but I could have been top five for sure."
Michel Jourdain Jr (SEAT Leon no. 10): "I don't know why the session was so bad for me. We were okay in the first few laps and when we changed to a fresh set of tyres, it was just terrible. I'm very disappointed because I think we should have been much better in the rain. In fact, I'm hoping for rain tomorrow to help me out a little."
BMW
Ekblom fourth on the grid for BMW in rainy Anderstorp qualifying.
Anderstorp (Sweden), 28th July 2007. Fredrik Ekblom (SWE) claimed fourth on the grid in qualifying for the 13th round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship. At Anderstorp's "Scandinavian Raceway", the new addition to BMW Team UK set a personal best time of 1:50.922 minutes, thus being 0.866 seconds slower than SEAT driver Tiago Monteiro (PRT), who clinched pole position. Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) finished 11th for BMW Team Italy-Spain, with his team-mate Felix Porteiro taking 12th place on the time sheets. Championship leader Jorg Muller (GER) and his fellow BMW drivers Augusto Farfus (BRA) and Andy Priaulx (GBR), however, will face a difficult catch up, if they want to add further points to their tallies.
A heavy rain shower opened qualifying. Towards the end of the 30-minute session, conditions improved again with a drying racing line. Nevertheless, the changeable weather didn't play into the hands of the best-placed BMW drivers in the drivers' classification. BMW Team UK driver Priaulx finished 15th at the 4.025-kilometre track, BMW Team Germany's Farfus had to make do with 18th position. His team-mate Muller will start the first race on Sunday from 20th place. All of the three BMW works drivers are carrying the maximum handicap weight of 60 kilograms in Sweden. Due to a 10-place grid penalty for Roberto Colciago (ITA/SEAT), Priaulx and Farfus as well as the two BMW Team Italy-Spain drivers will gain one spot on the grid.
Ekblom was happy with his successful WTCC debut after the exciting qualifying session. "Competition is extremely close in this championship. So you cannot predict a result like this," the local hero commented. "With such conditions as we saw them today, it gets even more difficult. Therefore, I'm very satisfied that all worked out so fine for me. The team gave me a fantastic welcome. I was called into the pits at exactly the right times, which gave me the chance to improve once more in the dying moments of the session. Now I'm eagerly waiting for the two races on Sunday. I will do my very best to score a good result."
Despite their less promising grid positions, the title aspirants within the ranks of the BMW national teams have anything but given up their hopes for scoring further valuable points tomorrow. "You can be sure I won't give up," said Muller. "In the final part of qualifying when conditions got better and better, we didn't manage to make our tyres work. There just wasn't enough grip. To make it into the points, however, won't be an easy task. But everything is possible in this championship." Priaulx added: "Augusto, Jorg and me are arguably in the same boat tomorrow. I will try hard to gain some lost ground. However, the 60 kilos on board my BMW won't help this mission."
Changeable weather conditions are also likely to influence the outcome of Sunday's races. The first of the two rounds will start at 12:05hrs local time (11:05hrs BST). The red lights go off for race two at 14:35hrs (13:35hrs BST). Both championship races will be contested over 13 laps and can be followed live on Eurosport International.
Alfa Romeo
N.Technology's James Thompson is looking forward to a hard fight to the front in tomorrow's 14th round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Anderstorp after qualifying an unlucky tenth at the Swedish circuit.
Unpredictable weather made it difficult to judge the track conditions and Thompson was left frustrated, unable to improve his best time. With another lap to warm up the tyres, he is confident that the Alfa Romeo 156 had the pace to fight for a front row position at a circuit where it has a strong record.
Thompson proved his pace during practice by setting fifth fastest time in Friday testing and placing fifth and sixth during Saturday morning's free practice sessions. With two 13-lap races tomorrow, Thompson and team-mate Olivier Tielemans will have the time to put that speed to good use by fighting through the field.
Olivier Tielemans in car number 16
Marco Calovolo, Technical Director
'Our objective was to be in the top five and in qualifying obviously the last ten minutes were key as the track was drying. This is not the result we wanted and we now need to concentrate on tomorrow."
James Thompson, car number 15
"I'm really disappointed - we saved dry tyres during the free practice sessions so that we'd have good rubber for qualifying then the conditions changed. The car is very quick and we had a good chance to be right at the front, and if we had maybe two more laps it could have been very different. At least we know we have a strong car for tomorrow, even if we have to come from tenth."
Olivier Tielemans, car number 16
'I had a lot of understeer during the session because of the conditions and it was very important for me to keep on the track and use the track time. It's only my second time driving the Alfa Romeo 156 in the wet, so it's all valuable experience and I have to make sure that I make use of it. I was getting quicker and quicker in the session as I was getting more used to the conditions and the car."