Corthals gets a weight break

Independent pole sitter Pierre-Yves Corthals, entering his home race as a one off event, has had the 40kg previously allocated to his León TFSI removed.

Corthals, racing this weekend for Exagon Engineering, said after securing pole at the post-qualifying press conference:
“I am really happy to be top independent and to race in Zolder. I didn’t expect this result but I had a good last lap and made no mistake so I’m very pleased.”

This is also Exagon’s first race of the year, in the week leading up to the race when the performance ballasts were allocated, the León TFSI of Corthals was assessed a 40kg penalty due to it being a new car in the championship, as other SEAT’s so far are the TDI specification cars.

Although Colak Racing was scheduled to take part in the WTCC, their switch to focus on the European Touring Car Cup meant no petrol SEAT’s had driven in the series so far in 2010.

A request for review from Exagon however, has seen the WTCC overturn that decision, on the grounds that Corthals car is ‘clearly not a new model’, and has competed before in the championship, being a 2005 specification vehicle. As a result, they’ve allowed the removal of the 40kg late entry penalty ballast.

After that decision, Corthals went on to take the independent’s class pole, qualifying 13th overall ahead of Darryl O’Young and Kristian Poulsen.

Elsewhere in the independents trophy, Mehdi Bennani was again punished for jumping the chicanes, as he was penalised for at Monza in race one, and Andrei Romanov gets a grid drop for changing his engine, but this doesn’t affect the qualifying order at all as they already formed the last row of the grid.