Extra weight expected for BMW teams at Brno

A strong weekend for the BMW teams in Hungary, coupled with a crowd pleasing fastest lap for Norbert Michelisz in the second race is likely to mean a hefty increase in compensation weight for the BMW 320 TC for the next round at Brno.

Although Chevrolet led the way in qualifying and won both races, it’s lap times that are used to derive the compensation weight, and in both races BMW led the way on this front.

In qualifying, Alain Menu’s pole position lap was only 0.164 faster than the top BMW of Javier Villa. In the races it was Norbert Michelisz who was the benchmark, setting the fastest lap in both races in his BMW 320 TC. The Zengö Motorsport driver was four-tenths of a second quicker in race one than the fastest Chevrolet of Menu, and a massive 3.3 seconds faster on a drying track in race two over the fastest Chevrolet Cruze of Yvan Muller.

The FIA are the only ones that can calculate the official time, and the system for the calculation is so complicated the FIA had to issue an amendment on Friday night as their first calculation was in error, with the BMWs then having to run with an additional 10kg on their base weight.

A disclaimer in the sporting regulations means it’s possible the race two lap times won’t be used in accordance with Article 79. A 7) which states:

If, for any reason, it is not possible to calculate a realistic time, the Panel of Stewards of the event concerned will allocate a notional time for the calculation.

It’s still like the BMW teams will be running with the maximum 40kg of compensation weight at Brno, the same as the two Chevrolet teams.