WTCC: The 2012 season kicks off in MonzaThe 2012 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) will start this weekend in Monza, feauring a field of 25 cars.
Chevrolet, the only factory team involved in this year’s championship will run the same line-up as the two previous years with reigning champion Yvan Muller alongisde Rob Huff and Alain Menu. Another car manufacturer is getting ready to compete in the WTCC, as Honda will join the field in the Asian rounds of the championship at the end of the year, racing a Civic. Honda will have a full-time programme in 2013. Although Seat officially withdrawed from WTCC at the end of 2009, the Spanish car manufacturer remained involved in the series through its private teams. This year, Seat is back in the championship as the supplier of the 1,6 litre TDi engines of both Lukoil Racing Team’s Seat Leons of Russian driver Alexey Dudukalo and the 2009 world champion Gabriele Tarquini, who may be back in the battle for the title this season. Lada will also run a Priora works car in Austria and Hungary for James Thompson, and could be back with a full program in 2013.
Ford will also enter the World Touring Car Championship this year, but it will be through [link artid="140748"]private team Arena Motorsport[/link[, which will run two Focuses for Tom Chilton and James Nash. Twenty-five cars will be on the track in Monza this weekend. The qualifying sytem has changed this season, as the top five drivers of Q1 will score points, and the 12 quickest drivers will run in Q2 to set the grid of Race 1. Qualifying 2 will also determinate the starting order for Race 2, reversing the top-ten drivers. In Monza and Valencia, the Chevrolet cars will run with the maximum weigh penalty of 40 kg, which could be crucial in terms of tire wear, considering that the races will be longer this year. For the first time this year, the WTCC will travel to the United States, with two races held in Sonoma, California in September. Entry list: 1 - Yvan Muller - FRA - Chevrolet - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 2 - Rob Huff - GBR - Chevrolet - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 3 - Gabriele Tarquini - ITA - Lukoil Racing Team - SEAT León WTCC 4 - Aleksei Dudukalo - RUS - Lukoil Racing Team - SEAT León WTCC 5 - Norbert Michelisz - HUN - Zengõ Motorsport - BMW 320 TC 6 - Franz Engstler - GER - Liqui Moly Team Engstler - BMW 320 TC 7 - Charles Ng - HKG - Liqui Moly Team Engstler - BMW 320 TC 8 - Alain Menu - SWI - Chevrolet - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 9 - Rickard Rydell - SWE - Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 11 - Alex MacDowall - GBR - Bamboo Engineering - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 - Pasquale Di Sabatino - ITA - Bamboo Engineering - Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 14 - James Nash - GBR - Arena International Motorsport - Ford Focus S2000 TC 15 - Tom Coronel - NED - ROAL Motorsport - BMW 320 TC 16 - Alberto Cerqui - ITA - ROAL Motorsport - BMW 320 TC 18 - Tiago Monteiro - POR - Tuenti Racing Team - SEAT León WTCC 20 - Darryl O'Young - HKG - Special Tuning Racing - SEAT León WTCC 22 - Tom Boardman - GBR - Special Tuning Racing - SEAT León WTCC 23 - Tom Chilton - GBR - Arena International Motorsport - Ford Focus S2000 TC 24 - Isaac Tutumlu - SPN - Proteam Racing - BMW 320 TC 25 - Mehdi Bennani - MOR - Proteam Racing - BMW 320 TC 26 - Stefano D'Aste - ITA - Wiechers-Sport - BMW 320 TC 27 - Gábor Wéber - HUN - Zengõ Motorsport - BMW 320 TC 40 - Andrea Barlesi - BEL - SUNRED Engineering - SEAT León WTCC 74 - Pepe Oriola - SPN - Tuenti Racing Team - SEAT León WTCC 88 - Fernando Monje - SPN - SUNRED Engineering - SEAT León WTCC |
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