Driver comments after Pau

The fourth round of the World Touring Car Championship was held yesterday on the streets of the French city of Pau. The first race was held on a dry track under a sunny sky. A big contrast to the second race, which was raced on a wet track. Both races were won by a BMW driver. Augusto Farfus took the victory in race 1, Andy Priaulx was victorious in the second race. SEAT defended there championship lead with success. Here is what the drivers had to say after the race.

Gabriele Tarquini (SEAT León):
“We must be positive. With such a heavy car the least thing I expected was to score nine points. I think that the key was the good qualifying of yesterday. It allowed us to achieve such an unexpected result”.

Yvan Muller: (SEAT León):
“The weekend hasn’t been that bad for us considering the ballast our cars were carrying. But we cannot be happy with the results. We could have been topping the standings but we will have to wait for the race in Brno”.

Rickard Rydell (SEAT León):
“I’m, very happy with my results after the first time in Pau, and I’ve been able to enjoy a very efficient car throughout the weekend, especially in the wet. I’m also happy because the team has made a great job scoring loads of points”.

Andy Priaulx (BMW 320si):
“This weekend has been special. The rewarding thing was to drive a wet race without any mistakes. I know if you make the smallest mistake in a touring car you just end up sliding all the way into the tyres. I was really happy with the race and really happy with 11 points from the weekend.”

Jordi Gené (SEAT León):
“The weekend has been good for us. We can be happy. I had a good qualifying and also a good first race. One of my tyres was damaged by the kerb in the second race. I would have been able to score some more points if it wasn’t for that”.

Robert Huff (Chevrolet Lacetti):
“Like Nicola I made up a place at the first start. After the restart all I had to do was to keep pushing Gabriele (Tarquini). I noticed in the last few laps that he was locking up and braking early for Turn 2, so on the last lap I just went for it and passed him for fourth. The second race was just a matter of keeping the car on the black stuff and not making mistakes. It wasn’t easy, as Gabriele’s tail lights didn’t work it was very difficult to judge the distance between the two cars and to see the braking points for the corners.”

Jörg Müller (BMW 320si):
“In race one I narrowly missed out on eighth place, which reduced my chances of a good result in the second round. But in the wet my car just had no grip. We will analyse carefully the reasons for the problem.”

Nicola Larini (Chevrolet Lacetti):
“In the first race I had a good start, immediately making up one place. At the re-start the field was obviously spread out more and it was more difficult to build up an attack to overtake, so I just kept my position knowing it would be enough to start from the front row for race 2. With the weather being as bad as it was and the second race also being started behind the safety car, all I could do was to try and keep the pressure on Andy hoping he would maybe make a mistake, but he didn’t. On this track it’s already difficult to overtake in the dry, let alone in pouring rain. Nevertheless, a second place after my lesser result in Valencia is good for morale.”

Augusto Farfus (BMW 320si):
“As the start of the season didn’t run as we had hoped for, I’m obviously very happy with this victory. In the first third of the race, I pushed hard to open up a gap between me and the rest of the field. Fortunately this worked well. It’s great finally to be back on the podium and to score points again.”

Alain Menu (Chevrolet Lacetti):
“I got hit by Zanardi on the first lap in the first race, which sent me into a spin and over the kerbs with the wheels in full opposite lock. This probably upset the geometry a bit as after the restart the car understeered everywhere. Under the conditions there was no way of doing better than tenth. In race 2 everything looked okay to maybe score a point but then the car went straight into the wall at the chicane. I had just lapped the Turkish driver, and I wasn’t carrying too much speed into the corner, so I don’t really know what happened. Unlike last year, Pau won’t be weekend to remember for me.”

Tiago Monteiro (SEAT León):
“I did not achieve what I expected. The races were good for the team, we continue scoring points, but not for me because nothing worked out as it should. The constant weather changes were negative”.

Tom Coronel (SEAT León):
“We started off OK. I ended the first free practice session in ninth place, which is somewhat higher than usual. The second session was half wet half dry which resulted in a third place right after the two BMW’s. A great result of course, especially with the weather forecasts being more or less the same for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately for me qualifying was completely dry. I missed too much and ended up in 14th place, which was a bit disappointing. The laps were perfect but we were just not quick enough. We were the fastest SEAT petrol runners however. The warm up session was better again with a half wet half dry track.

Despite the dry track things went wrong in the first lap of the first race. I had a good start and I saw trouble coming up so I decided to take the outside line. Immediately I moved up three positions, but unfortunately the race was stopped as there were too much damaged cars on the track. Then the restart took place, but it was based on the first timing point on the track. Too bad for me as I was still in 14th position there. It was to be a boring race for all of us which brought me 14th place.

Half an hour before the second race it started to rain which brought a smile to my face. We did three laps behind the safety car before the race was actually started. It was a good decision to do it like this as there was an awful lot of water on the track and the only thing you could see were the lights of the car ahead of you. When we got underway things went fine for me. On the third lap I overtook Monteiro and right after that I started to attack Zanardi. He outbraked himself and overshot the corner. Then I was behind Jorg Müller who did more or less the same. However he managed to come back and overtook me again. Not for long as one lap later I was ahead of him again. In the closing stages I even was the fastest out on the track, but there was nobody near me I could fight with. So I stayed in ninth place which means no points for the championship. That’s a bit of a shame as I actually hoped we could get some here.

The next race will be at Brno in the Czech Republic. We hope to get an updated engine there which should bring an extra 10 BHp. Probably it is not enough to win races, but it should certainly help to score some more points”

Félix Porteiro (BMW 320si):
“My lap times weren’t too bad today, but that doesn’t help you much on a street circuit. In the wet I didn’t risk too much, as anyway a points finish was out of reach.”

Alessandro Zanardi (BMW 320si):
“I paid the price for my poor qualifying performance. Our car was very competitive today, but you just cannot win anything from the midfield here in Pau. I particularly enjoyed race two, although you could hardly see anything in the early laps.”

Jaime Puig (SEAT Sport Director):
“It’s a positive weekend since the team has worked very hard under very difficult conditions, but the weight differences with respect to our rivals conditioned our chances”.