Tarquini, Monteiro & Coronel ruled out of indies

The WTCC has confirmed that the two SUNRED drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro, as well as ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel will not be eligible for the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy this season.

All three drivers were also not eligible last season, as although they competed with the independent SUNRED team after SEAT Sport’s withdrawal at the end of 2009, all cars running with the SEAT TDI engine were ruled out of the trophy just before the start of the season.

In a special addition for 2010, a new rookie challenge was created in its place to satisfy drivers such as Michel Nykjaer, Fredy Barth and Norbert Michelisz, but this has been replaced with a round by round system called the Jay-Ten Trophy for 2011.

In addition to the diesel powered SEATs, the only other driver to be taken out of the independents’ rankings last year was 2009 BTCC champion Colin Turkington who was driving a three-year-old BMW 320si.

The regulations for the 2011 Yokohama Independents’ Trophy state that the drivers’ and teams’ historical performance will be taken into consideration when deciphering their eligibility, and with the publication of the entry list for next weekend’s race at Curitiba the WTCC has confirmed that 2009 WTCC champion Gabriele Tarquini, former Formula 1 driver Tiago Monteiro and two-times independent champion Tom Coronel (driving for former works BMW squad ROAL) will not be eligible for the trophy.

SUNRED’s other drivers Fredy Barth, Aleksei Dudukalo, Pepe Oriola and Michel Nykjaer will however be eligible for the independents’ trophy for the first time in their SEAT León TDIs this season.