RML
Team News
Points for RML in Brazil. Issued March 11th 2007
Chevrolet
Third In Manufacturers Championship
Rob
Huff scored Chevrolet’s first points of the 2007 World
Touring Car Championship with a fifth place in the first
race in Curitiba, Brazil, today. It was the high point of
the weekend, as both Alain Menu and Nicola Larini were victim
of race incidents in the first race, while Rob suffered
the same bad luck in the second. In
the drivers’ championship this places Huff seventh
overall with four points, while Chevrolet lies third in
the manufacturer’s standings with nine points.
Rob Huff finished fifth in the first of the weekend's two
races, but failed to reach the flag in the second. “The
first race went fine, except for some serious understeer
going into Turn 6, as well as accelerating out of that turn.
So I had to solve that by lifting, turning in, smoothly
going through the corner and then accelerating out again
later than normal. For race two we changed the camber, which
improved things, and I had a brilliant start, running in
third up to Turn 1, but then the car got away from me under
braking as the pedal unexpectedly went long.
I got hit by another car and that was it.”
Nicola
Larini shared Huff's disappointment in the first race, with
a DNF, and then ended up 10th in the second . "In the
first race I had a good start, until Yvan Muller pushed
me off in Turn 1! The car was extensively damaged. In race
two, I had another good start, moving up from the back of
the grid to tenth in the first corner. Unfortunately I got
sandwiched there which damaged the splitter and destroyed
the balance of the car. A couple of laps later the splitter
fell off completely, and that restored the balance. From
then on I had a good race and made it to the finish. That's
the just reward for the hard work the boys put in to repair
the car.”
Alain
Menu had a desperate meeting, failing to finish in both
races. “I was the innocent victim (of the Turn 1 incident
between Nicola Larini and Yvan Muller) when Nicola’s
car was pushed into mine, ending my race there and then.
In the second race I immediately felt that the steering
was not the way it should be. Under braking it felt like
one of the shocks was broken, so I came in after a few laps
as I felt it would have been too dangerous to continue.”
Eric
Nève of Chevrolet Europe was upbeat nevertheless.
“We showed that the performance is there, but unfortunately
it didn’t quite show, neither in qualifying nor in
the races. We will keep on working in this direction and
make sure we will be right there at the next race in Zandvoort
in seven weeks’ time, which one could consider as
the real start of the season, as from then on we will be
racing every other weekend.”
Mark
Busfield, Team Manager for RML Chevrolet, was also able
to see the silver lining. “A positive thing this weekend
is that team did a great job in rebuilding two badly damaged
cars from race one using every minute of the extra time
we now have between the two races to accommodate the TV
schedule. This allowed us to start race two with both Alain’s
and Nicola’s cars and Nicola to finish tenth whereas
under last year’s timing his car would never have
been repaired in time. In all this is the testament of the
improvements we made over winter to increase serviceability
and reduce time needed make repairs.”
CURITIBA
Race 1 Results
1. J Müller BMW 320si 16 laps in 25m38s208 (138.360kph)
2. A Priaulx BMW 320si + 0s421
3. A Farfus BMW 320si + 1s234
4. G Tarquini SEAT Leon + 8s876
5. R Huff Chevrolet Lacetti + 9s701
DNF N Larini Chevrolet Lacetti Accident (0 laps)
DNF A Menu Chevrolet Lacetti Accident (0 laps)
CURITIBA
Race 2Results
1. A Farfus BMW 320si 14 laps in 20m20s148 (152.620kph)
2. A Priaulx BMW 320si + 4s378
3. J Müller BMW 320si + 5s691
4. Y Muller SEAT Leon + 6s963
5. G Tarquini SEAT Leon + 7s479
10. N Larini Chevrolet Lacetti + 18s425
DNF A Menu Chevrolet Lacetti Accident damage (3 laps)
DNF R Huff Chevrolet Lacetti Accident (0 laps)
Drivers'
Points Standings after Race 2 of 22
1ex. J Müller (BMW), A Farfus (BMW) and A Priaulx (BMW)
16pts; 4. G Tarquini (SEAT) 9; 5. Y Müller (SEAT) 6;…
7. R Huff (Chevrolet) and T Coronel (SEAT) 4;…
Manufacturer's
Points
Standings after Race 2 of 22
1. BMW, 36pts; 2. SEAT, 21; 3. Chevrolet, 9; 4. Alfa Romeo,
5.
The
next race of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship takes
place in Zandvoort, Holland on 6 May.
The full calendar for the year is:
2007
FIA World Touring Car Championship
11
March - Curitiba, Brazil
6
May - Zandvoort, Netherlands
20 May - Valencia, Spain
3 June - Pau, France
17
June - Brno, Czech Republic
8 July - Porto, Portugal
29 July - Anderstorp, Sweden
2 September - Oschersleben, Germany
23 September -Brands Hatch, Great Britain
7 October - Monza, Italy
18 November - Macau, China
