The Chevrolet Cruizes could not turn their pace into results

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Seat
Spectacular double 1-2-3-4 for SEAT in Brazil

SEAT Sport achieved an extraordinary result in both of the opening races of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship, placing four Leon TDI on the top four positions of both races held at the Curitiba racetrack and beating all their rivals both on dry and wet track. This spectacular result, one of the best results achieved by the make in the history of the WTCC, places SEAT and their drivers Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini - winners of today's races - on the top of the overall standings, though with only one point of advantage over Jordi Gene and Rickard Rydell, who stepped on the podium today as well.

First race

From the start, the four SEAT Leon TDI of Yvan Muller, Jordi Gene, Rickard Rydell and Gabriele Tarquini took the top four positions with Tiago Monteiro in sixth, fighting with the BMW and Chevrolet. An accident halfway the race led to the deployment of the Safety Car but this was no hindrance for the four SEAT Leon TDI to keep their dominance at the restart and continue like that until the chequered flag.

Second race

The rain flooded the track and the second race had to start behind the Safety Car. Soon after the start Gabriele Tarquini and Rickard Rydell moved up quickly and a few laps later they were already on the top two positions. Jordi Gene and Yvan Muller did the same further in the back and were right behind their team-mates before mid-race. Once on the four top positions, the SEAT drivers kept them until the end of the race.

Tom Coronel managed to finish eight, scoring one point at the wheel of his SEAT Leon WTCC of the Sunred team, while Tiago Monteiro managed to move up to twelfth after starting from the back due to a penalty imposed on him after the first race for overtaking before the restart.

Main figures

Yvan Muller: (SEAT Leon TDI): "It's been a very positive weekend, especially because we have been much faster than expected. There are four of us SEAT drivers leading the overall standings and that's good, but it's a long season".

Gabriele Tarquini (SEAT Leon TDI): "What happened is fantastic since placing four cars on the top positions of both races was inconceivable. It's an exceptional result. The rain possibly helped us in the second race, but our performance today has been very good".

Rickard Rydell (SEAT Leon TDI): "What happened is incredible because we thought that the BMW would be faster than us. The good qualifying job of the whole team and the good conditions, rain of the second race included, were the key".

Jordi Gene (SEAT Leon TDI): "I came to Brazil thinking to score six and six points and I'm leaving with fourteen. Therefore it is a superb result and both podiums make me leave Curitiba in high spirits. It's what I had dreamed of before the start of the season. I hope that the next races, such as Mexico, were I won last year, will be favourable. It seems obvious that SEAT has five drivers who are able to fight again for the championship".

Next race: 21 and 22 March, Puebla (Mexico).
BMW
Farfus most successful BMW driver in Brazil - Muller launches fight back.

Curitiba, 8th March 2009. On the opening weekend of the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus (BR) was the most successful member of the BMW national teams. In the first race of the season the 25-year-old finished fifth in front of his home crowd in Curitiba (BR). In race two, he added sixth place to his tally on a wet track. His team-mate, Jorg Muller (DE), was the man of the second round, in which the 39-year-old drove his BMW 320si WTCC from 21st on the grid to finish fifth.

Sergio Hernandez (ES) of BMW Team Italy-Spain and BMW Team UK's Andy Priaulx (GB) also scored championship points in the first race by finishing sixth and seventh. However, SEAT dominated proceedings at the "Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba" and celebrated two clean sweeps by claiming the top four positions. The win in race one was secured by Yvan Muller (FR), Gabriele Tarquini (IT) claimed victory in race two.

Muller's hopes for a strong result in race one ended as early as Turn 3. Running in fifth place he was hit by Chevrolet's Alain Menu (CH), who rejoined after cutting the chicane. Following this bump with Menu, Muller collided with Priaulx and had to pit with a handling problem. He went out again a few minutes later, but finished five laps down on the winner. Priaulx dropped to 19th with a damaged right front wheel, but fought his way back up to ninth.

Due to this incident, Farfus improved from seventh to fifth and eventually finished sixth. The progress of Hernandez was the best, crossing the line in seventh after starting from 11th. His team-mate, Alessandro Zanardi (IT), improved from 14th to 12th. All BMW national team drivers benefited from a time penalty after the chequered flag for two drivers who had finished in front of them, thus gaining two places each. Priaulx was classified seventh, securing two points and a front-row grid position for race two alongside BMW privateer Felix Porteiro (ES) of Proteam Motorsport.

Thirty minutes before the start, a heavy thunderstorm hit the 3.685-kilometre circuit. The race therefore got underway ten minutes late and was started behind the safety- car. In these conditions, the BMW drivers running at the front were unable to defend their positions. Only Farfus and Porteiro managed to translate their promising grid positions into points. Muller, on the other hand, coped really well with the conditions and launched an impressive fight back. From 21st place he improved lap by lap, finally taking the chequered flag in fifth.

Friedhelm Nohl (General Manager Engineering, Sports and Touring Cars):

"This weekend, SEAT was unbeatable - in both dry and wet conditions. However, our drivers also had some highlights. Andy managed to move up from the back of the field in race one following a collision at the start. Jorg put in a fantastic performance in the second race, improving from 21st to fifth. Augusto and Sergio finished in the top eight in both races. So we at least took home some points. Now we must immediately set our sights on the future. We will do our best to close the gap to the frontrunners as quickly as possible."

Andy Priaulx (BMW Team UK):

"I was just relieved to finish race one, despite the incident after the start, and I was feeling pretty confident for race two from the front row of the grid. Sadly what I felt would be a good race for me turned into a nightmare. For some reason I just could not drive the car in the wet conditions, and I was going backwards in race two. It was a shame as up to then I was happy with how things had gone."

Jorg Muller (BMW Team Germany):

"Following the disappointment in race one the successful fight back in the second felt really sweet. We made the perfect set-up choice for these conditions. At first, we considered taking the risk to run on dry tyres, but then we forgot the idea as there was just too much water on the track. Had the race gone on for another few laps I could have made it even further up. Overall I'm happy."

Augusto Farfus (BMW Team Germany):

"We have done what we could - however, that was not good enough this weekend. For race two we opted for a dry set-up, in order to have an advantage over the course of the race. But the circuit didn't dry out fast enough, so our decision didn't pay off."

Sergio Hernandez (BMW Team Italy-Spain):

"I'm satisfied with my race one result and also with the way the relationship with my new team worked out. However, it was disappointing to lose points in race two due to a collision."

Alessandro Zanardi (BMW Team Italy-Spain):

"This was a disappointing weekend. I didn't manage to be quick enough in the dry or the wet. We will now have a close look at the reasons for that. I had hoped to benefit from my new sequential gearbox at the standing start of race two, but the rain took this opportunity away from me."

Chevrolet
Sanction Deprives Larini of 5th in Race 1, Fastest Lap for Menu in Race2

CURITIBA, 8th March 2009 The Race of Brazil that opens the World Touring Car Championship once again did not bring luck to the Chevrolet team, as a number of race circumstances prevented the team to score points in Curitiba, but the good news is that the new Chevrolet Cruze showed good pace and excellent potential throughout the week-end.

Nicola Larini finished an excellent fifth in Race 1, but he subsequently lost the position and the points after the race when the Stewards inflicted him an arguable penalty of 30 seconds for not keeping his line during the restart phase after a period under safety-car along with 4 other competitors. Alain Menu was the innocent victim of the Curitiba first lap contact and Rob Huff was stopped by a broken throttle cable.

In Race 2, on a rain soaked track, the three Cruzes showed excellent pace (Alain Menu scored the fastest lap of the race) but having to start at the back of the grid, and having driven well through the grid, they could not finish beyond the 11th, 13th and 15th position.

QUOTES

Alain Menu (Ret / 11th): "It is a frustrating result because we deserved much better, but this is racing. In Race 1, I hadn't the start that I wanted and when we got to turn 4, Monteiro hit me, causing a pile- up also involving Jorg Muller and Priaulx. My race ended there and the bodywork of the car got damaged. Despite that, in Race 2, the car was very good and got better lap after lap, allowing me to finish 11th and recording the fastest lap at the end of the race".

Rob Huff (Ret / 13th ): "It must be written somewhere that Curitiba is jinxed for us! In Race 1, I managed to avoid trouble in the initial laps and was aiming at some points, when the throttle stopped to function. In Race 2, starting from the back and with a wet track, we worked hard to move forward and made the best progress possible".

Nicola Larini (15th / 15th): "I am really infuriated for the sanction after Race 1. I did a great race: at the start, I stayed on the right side of the track, where I knew there would be less problems, and got clear of the incident that stopped Alain. The car was really good in the fast corners, I kept the 7th position without any trouble and then managed to gain two positions, to finish fifth, a very good result for the Cruze's first race. I do not understand the penalty I got for the restart, as Monteiro was extremely slow and Farfus and I could only pull over to avoid contact. In Race 2, I struggled as I had a set-up for dry conditions".

Mark Busfield: "It has been a difficult start to our season, and on a positive note the new Cruze proved that in Race 1 in the hands of Nicola, the car was the fastest non-diesel car. In Race 2, our days of wet winter testing came to fruition with Alain posting the fastest lap of the race. It's good to see the car is as competitive as the BMW, and we all need to work to get on SEAT's pace".
Lada
The LADA Sport team has enjoyed a good debut as a registered manufacturer on the FIA World Touring Car Championship, which got underway this weekend with the first two races in Curitiba, Brazil.

Conditions ranged from warm temperatures of over 30 degrees Centigrade to torrential rain, but at the end of an action-packed weekend all three cars return safely to base having finished both races. The team has also accumulated plenty of valuable data for the future and shown plenty of potential, setting a fastest lap that was only just over a second slower than the fastest race lap of all in race two.

Yesterday's qualifying session, held in dry and warm conditions, saw Dutch driver Jaap van Lagen (n.18) line up 20th on the grid for race one, with his team mates Kirill Ladygin (n.19) and Viktor Shapovalov (n.20) from Russia claiming 23rd and 24th respectively.

An enthusiastic crowd saw the 2009 season get off to a flying start in race one, with plenty of the overtaking and close racing that characterises the FIA World Touring Car Championship. The action was frantic, with a safety car period halfway through the encounter in order to recover a car that was in a dangerous position. At the end of race one van Lagen had made up five places to finish 15th overall: just one place off his best result from last year of 14th. Shapovalov was 17th and Ladygin was 18th, having enjoyed a spirited battle with each other throughout the race.

The LADA drivers all started race two in the same positions as they finished race one, but there was drama just before the start. The tropical climate of Brazil made its presence felt with a vengeance, as a torrential rainstorm battered the 3.6-kilometre Curitiba circuit, located to the south of Sao Paulo.

Additionally, a starter motor failure on Ladygin's car meant that the Russian was forced to start the delayed race two from the pitlane. When the action finally got underway behind the safety car, there were still huge puddles of standing water that made the grip precarious.

Faced with the downpour, van Lagen found that his car's windscreen wipers were not clearing the screen quickly enough and on occasions they even stopped completely. Nonetheless he recovered from this setback as the track dried, putting in some promising lap times. When the chequered flag fell after 16 laps, van Lagen was classified 17th.

"It was really good fun, although often I couldn't see where I was going at all," said the Dutchman. "There was a lot of water during the first few laps but I was quite surprised by just how quickly it dried up. Because we were on wet tyres and didn't have the top speed we needed down the straight it was hard for us to compete, but we still surpassed our expectations. Our personal fastest lap was only just over a second slower than the fastest race lap so I'm happy. That wouldn't have happened last year, so it shows that the new engine has already brought us some progress."

Kirill Ladygin also struggled with visibility and power steering problems, ending the wet race in 22nd place. "It's certainly a lot more difficult than it is in the dry, but given that we started at the back we have to be happy," said the Russian. "The main thing is that I have learned a lot this weekend. I really enjoyed the first race: I had a good battle with my team mate Viktor and I think that we showed some promising speed. Now we just have to work hard to improve it for the rest of the year."

Viktor Shapovalov, who combines his driving duties with running the LADA Sport team, was 23rd at the end of race two, having run wide in the slippery conditions. "Like a few people, I did a bit of rallycrossing!" joked Shapovalov at the finish. "I think we can all be proud of ourselves on this historic weekend though, which marked only our first participation in the FIA World Touring Car Championship as an official manufacturer. First and foremost, we had three cars safely at the finish of each race. We also enjoyed perfect reliability, and some of our lap times underlined the potential that is to come. Now we're looking forward to Mexico!"

The next round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship will take place in Puebla, Mexico, from March 20-22.