2014 WTCC Race of Austria - Salzburgring - Round 5

[Rubio]

Official preview: http://d1oo2un3qpiryo.cloudfront.net...ng_preview.pdf

Expect a Citroen/private Chevy battle if it stays dry (low probability), and a tough weekend for Honda. Hopefully bith races will be held this time. Salzburgring always produced great races, so should be exciting, fingers crossed

[keviiinn]

any possibility of further ballast reduction for the non-Citroens? while the reduction helped close the gap a bit, it feels like another 40 or 60kg is what will really even things up.

[redshoes]

+60kg is the most allowed within the regulation, which is what the Citroens are currently on

[FIRE]

Gianni Morbidelli has lost pole position for the Austrian round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship after receiving a grid penalty post qualifying for improving his time under yellow flags.
The Italian had stopped the Citroën team’s run of pole positions this season with an incredible lap with the 46-year-old himself was uncertain of where it came from to outqualify four-time champion Yvan Muller by less than a tenth of a second.
The stewards however found him guilty of improving his time in Q1 under yellow flags, when Campos Racing’s John Filippi was moving slowly on the circuit, and so have awarded him a five place penalty, which drops him to sixth behind Tom Chilton for the first race.


...


01 Yvan Muller
02 Sébastien Loeb
03 Tom Coronel
04 José MarÃ*a López
05 Tom Chilton
06 Gianni Morbidelli
07 Tiago Monteiro
08 Mehdi Bennani
09 Norbert Michelisz
10 Gabriele Tarquini

http://www.touringcartimes.com/2014/...ller-inherits/

The rivals getting closer to the Citroens.

[Metzo]

shame v lost the pole for race1

guess he will win race 2 though

[rustyfan]

Disappointing race 1, had much higher hopes for some good racing.

Too bad we won't see race 2 live due to some mostly meaningless tennis.

[BtccLee]

I acknowledge there wasn't much overtaking but I really enjoyed the first race. The cars look lovely, the weather was nice and the circuit is fantastic. This from someone who watched the race with their breakfast and a cup of tea!

[Juntos]

As boring as any other WTCC race. But for some, that time never comes. Instead of healing old wounds, the wait just open new ones. Time after time. Happy for Tom C. only. He deserved.

[nobster]

Yep after a very difficult start of the season, Tom Coronel is climbing up the ranks, fourth is maximum possible. I'm afraid but he gets closer to that with a good performance today

[Bramzel]

It's good to see that the Chevy teams are starting to understand their cars, closing the gap to the Citroëns. I don't think they'll be able to really attack them, but at least the difference isn't 2 seconds anymore. I'd be worried if I were driving a Honda though, it looks like the Cruzes are on par with the Civics now.

[keviiinn]

like I thought earlier, it seems like the other teams have caught up a bit, but a little more ballast reduction might be what we need to really even up the cars. perhaps -20kg for Honda and Chevy and -60kg for the Lada would do it. I'm positive that in previous seasons, they had cars running -60kg ballast, unless I'm remembering wrong.

it's a shame though that RML isn't fielding their own cars this year. I'm sure that if a guy like Yvan Muller or Rob Huff were in a Chevy, they'd be neck and neck with Citroen.

[redshoes]

Originally Posted by keviiinn

like I thought earlier, it seems like the other teams have caught up a bit, but a little more ballast reduction might be what we need to really even up the cars. perhaps -20kg for Honda and Chevy and -60kg for the Lada would do it. I'm positive that in previous seasons, they had cars running -60kg ballast, unless I'm remembering wrong.

As mentioned earlier, the weight adjustments are set the regulations. It's no good wishing for something different because it's not going to happen.

In previous seasons the compensation ballast was in the range of -20kg to +40kg, now it's 0kg to +60kg. You may previously have seen that the difference between two cars was 60kgs but you would not have been a car with -60kg ballast.

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

Disappointing race 1, had much higher hopes for some good racing.

Too bad we won't see race 2 live due to some mostly meaningless tennis.

Hello! Nice to see a name from the past!
(P.S. o/t but TBK is back...come back too! Lets get the old band back together )

Really enjoyed WTCC this weekend which isn't like me.
But that was almost exclusively because of the track rather than the series itself, could watch anything race there. Proper old school racetrack.

A shame for Thompson and Huff though, no idea why they think trolling around at the back of the WTCC then getting knocked out of the way by the big boys is a better idea than coming and chasing wins and a title in the BTCC, particularly now it's back on top of its game.

Looking forward to the ETCC races from here too, whenever Eurosport gets around to showing them

[auroan]

Originally Posted by codename_47

A shame for Thompson and Huff though, no idea why they think trolling around at the back of the WTCC then getting knocked out of the way by the big boys is a better idea than coming and chasing wins and a title in the BTCC, particularly now it's back on top of its game.

They get paid a decent package running for a manufacturer in a world championship... it keeps them in the eyes of other prospective entries as well.

[AxelF]

Originally Posted by auroan

They get paid a decent package running for a manufacturer in a world championship... it keeps them in the eyes of other prospective entries as well.

I think payment of a manufacturer in WTCC is even better than running as a privateer in BTCC.

[Rubio]

Good races, awesome scenery. Race 2 was really entertaining. It has been always difficult to overtake here, no real passing zones, so racing was quite typical for Salzburgring (reminded me of 2012 event, though without punctures, of course)

It was good to hear Andy Priaulx' commentary, hope he reaturns somewhere in the future

[Metzo]

Originally Posted by Rubio

It has been always difficult to overtake here, no real passing zones

guess you missed the etcc races from 2008

[Rubio]

Obviously meant past WTCC races here. That Salzburgring 2008 ETCC Race 1 was one of the best touringcar races I've ever seen, great battle between Nykjaer and Goransson. However it's still difficult to overtake here unless you have some good straightline spped advantage (like Chevy 2012, Yvan Muller 2013, Citroen 2014). In any case the track is fantastic and deserves to be in the calendar

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by codename_47

Hello! Nice to see a name from the past!
(P.S. o/t but TBK is back...come back too! Lets get the old band back together )

Hehe hey there, haven't actually really gone anywhere - I've been around most of the time

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by rustyfan

Hehe hey there, haven't actually really gone anywhere - I've been around most of the time

I suppose you have on here, I should post here more but there's only so much time in the day you can waste on forms, I'm sure you know that more than anyone tbh

Back on topic, are people really saying this track is hard to pass at?
Were we watching different races?
It's a brilliant track, always great races here!