What the numbers say up until now…

A statistical look at the results of this year’s WTCC during the two-month Summer break, at the 2/3 mark of the season.

Starting off with the overall drivers’ standings, and as expected the three Chevrolet drivers have broken away from the pack at the top.

In the second group, it’s a close fight between Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT for fourth with Tom Coronel in the BMW, with independents’ leaders Norbert Michelisz and Pepe Oriola also in contention.

Just looking at the progress of the top three in the Championship round-by-round, and you can see Yvan Muller has maintained a pretty stable lead, though it’s closer now than it has been throughout most of the season. P2 has been swapping constantly between Alain Menu and Rob Huff, with Huff currently out ahead.

Looking at the average qualifying position (not including the reverse grid), it’s Yvan Muller who comes out on top with an average grid spot of 2.4. It’s not a Chevrolet 1-2-3 this time however, as Gabriele Tarquini’s average of 4.0 is better than Alain Menu’s, whilst one-off drives for Michel Nykjaer and Rickard Rydell also put the two Scandinavian drivers at the top end of the table.

After that there’s a bit of a drop to Norbert Michelisz, whose average spot is 8.0. Tom Coronel’s 8.6 may indicate he’s making a play for the top ten reverse grid, but in fact that result is a bit skewed after Coronel qualified in 21st due to his times being excluded in Hungary.

The independents’ trophy battle started off close, with Stefano D’Aste and Pepe Oriola the initial combatants, but as time has gone on, Norbert Michelisz has dragged himself into the battle and took over the points lead for the first time at Brazil, whilst D’Aste has been falling back.

Total victories, Yvan Muller leads the way on seven from the available 16. Alain Menu and Rob Huff have three each, with Stefano D’Aste, Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini all having taken one win so far this year.

Pole positions are a different story, of the eight races so far, Yvan’s taken three poles but it’s Tarquini’s SEAT in second place with two poles. Menu and Huff have just one pole position each, as does Norbert Michelisz, after springing a qualifying surprise in Slovakia.

The average qualifying gap between the top placed of each of the cars shows the relative performance of the cars averaged to a 1m30s lap time. The Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T comes out on top as expected, but the SEAT, often represented by Gabriele Tarquini as the fastest driver, is just under three-tenths of a second behind.

The BMW 320 TC is within half a second, with the SR León 1.6T of Tiago Monteiro just under a second off the pace.

The new cars to the WTCC, the Ford Focus and Lada Granta are around 1.5 seconds down with the older diesel SEAT over two seconds down.

In the independents’ trophy, Pepe Oriola has taken the most wins with five, one ahead of Stefano D’Aste. Michelisz’s consistency therefore is what has helped him grab the lead of the trophy, as he only has three class wins. Michel Nykjaer took an independents’ win on his one-off appearance at Curitiba, and joins Proteam’s Mehdi Bennani, Bamboo’s Alex MacDowall and Lukoil Racing Team’s Aleksei Dudukalo as one-time race winners.

For independents’ trophy poles, Oriola has taken three with Michelisz on two. Nykjaer, MacDowall and Bennani are the only other drivers to have taken that extra point this year.

For average finishing position, it’s Alain Menu who comes out on top. The Swiss driver’s average finishing position is 2.9, as he often fares well in the reversed grid second race, moving his way up the order (as you saw earlier his average qualifying position for race one is 5.0, which makes his average qualifying position for race two 6.0).

Yvan Muller’s is 3.7, and Rob Huff completes a Chevrolet top three with 3.9. Michel Nykjaer’s two fifth places in Brazil plants him on the table in fourth position, but it’s Tom Coronel who’s the next best of the full-time drivers, finishing sixth on average.

In terms of best finishing position, we’ve covered the race winners already. Those with a best finish of second and still chasing a win are Pepe Oriola, Tom Coronel and Aleksei Dudukalo, the latter having a strong weekend at the Slovakiaring. Mehdi Bennani is the only other podium finisher, whilst Alberto Cerqui and Rickard Rydell have been just off the podium.

Reliability, and there are seven drivers who have recorded finishes in all of their races this year. Fernando Monje, Rickard Rydell and Michel Nykjaer haven’t competed in the full season of course. Pepe Oriola also appears on this table, though he did pit at the end of the last race in Brazil, he was still classified. The two Chevrolets of Rob Huff and Yvan Muller also have 100% records, although both suffered punctures on the final lap of race two at the Salzburgring, they both crossed the line in second and eighth positions, and then there’s Tom Coronel, who has also finished every race.

James Thompson has a 50% retirement rate, as he stopped the Lada in both races on what was effectively its shakedown test at the Hungaroring. Tiago Monteiro has only finished 60% of the races this year, as the Portuguese driver has had a lot of bad luck and mechanical problems.

Total number of fastest laps, that’s Yvan Muller again with six. Alain Menu has grabbed four, with Norbert Michelisz actually on two along with Rob Huff. Pepe Oriola and Rickard Rydell have also claimed a fastest lap result each.

And lastly, fastest laps in the independents’ trophy, Norbert Michelisz shows his race pace makes up for his qualifying pace with five fastest laps. Pepe Oriola has four, with Stefano D’Aste, Alex MacDowall and Franz Engstler all with two each, and just one for Michel Nykjaer.

That wraps up the stats for the ‘two-thirds mark’ for 2012, the next race is in just a month’s time at the Sonoma Raceway.