Organisers respond to Coronel, there’s no ‘pit box’ rule

The WTCC organisation has stated there is no regulation which sets the order of the pit boxes in the World Touring Car Championship, and that the Dutch driver’s protestations are therefore unfounded.

Tom Coronel was fuming after missing out in Q1, with the ROAL Motorsport driver protesting that because he positioned behind the Ford and Lukoil SEAT teams in the pits that he was unable to join behind the Chevrolets in the session and grab a tow through the first two corners. Unable to finish his second run due to the red flag, the Dutch driver qualified in 13th place, now 12th after James Nash’s grid penalty.

But series promoter Marcello Lotti says there’s no regulation that sets the order of the pit boxes in the championship.

“There is no sporting regulation for this,” said Lotti to TouringCarTimes. “We decided together that we’d try when it was possible to follow the manufacturers’ overall classification, so Chevrolet is leader and all the Chevrolet brand start in the first pit and after the others follow.”

“At this event it was not possible as we have Hungary one week after and some teams will stay here (to test) and some teams will move tomorrow or this evening directly to Hungary.”

“The teams that stay here will have the first part of the pit lane as we have a deal with the organisers as we cannot use all the paddock. Those are the rules, it’s not a mistake and it’s not an error, it’s a logistics problem which we’ve solved this way.”