Menu still after points not victories

After a DNF in race one at Monza, Alain Menu is aiming to gather ground this weekend with his championship challenge after dropping from one point behind Rob Huff to 41 after Italy.

Alain Menu starts on pole position for race one and second on the grid for race two, the same positions Chevrolet team-mate Rob Huff occupied when he went on to take two victories in a day three weeks ago at Monza, becoming only the third driver to do so in the WTCC’s history.

However, Menu isn’t focussing on producing the same feat.

“I’m not even thinking about it. I just want two good, clean races and get the points. If I can get a win, great, If I can get two wins that’d be fantastic,” said Menu to TouringCarTimes.

“Like I said in Zolder, I’m not really interested in wins anymore, I’ve got enough of them so I just want good points and yeah, 25 points and again in race two would be great.”

Menu starts race one ahead of Yvan Muller, with whom he had a race long battle at Monza which ended with contact on the final lap, with Muller tapping the Swiss driver off the circuit and into retirement.

Muller was found at fault and given a ten place grid penalty suspended for two races. When asked if he feels there’s less pressure with this threat hanging over Yvan, and the fact that they are team-mates, Menu responded:

“A little less pressure yes and no, because he knows like I know like Rob knows that we can’t take each other off. It happened in Monza, it can’t happen again, and on top of that for Yvan he’s got a suspended penalty so I guess he’s got to maybe be a little more careful,” said Menu.

“But I know him, he’s very very good and he’s going to push like hell and he’s got the same car as I do so I think it’s going to be a close fight. And don’t discount the BMWs, over the race distance, on paper they should be strong.”

The two Chevrolet drivers qualifying results were under scrutiny post qualifying, after many drivers were deemed to not be observing the track limits during free practice and qualifying.

The stewards investigation into Alain Menu and Yvan Muller’s laps concluded with no action and the two will start from row one for Round 7 tomorrow.