Honda, Lada and Chevrolet get maximum weight break

The Honda Civic WTCC, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 and Lada Granta Sport have all been awarded the maximum possible drop in compensation weight by the FIA for the next round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Budapest, leaving the Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs on the maximum of 1,160kg.

All four models of car began the season on 1,160kg as they were new models competing in the Championship, but after the qualifying and race performances of the cars have been evaluated after Marrakech and Paul Ricard, the WTCC’s system of compensation weight now comes into force, which aims to help smooth out, but not completely balance out, the differences in performance between the models.

With Citroën having put on a dominant display, with two pole positions and four race victories, with fastest laps in every race, the French manufacturer will unsurprisingly remain at 1,160kg for Budapest, while their three rivals will be able to drop to the new lowest possible weight of 1,100kg. This will be the lowest weight a WTCC car has run since the Championship began, thanks to the lower base weight of the new TC1 class cars.

The average lap time difference between the Citroën C-Elysée and RML’s Chevrolet Cruze was judged to be the closest, at 1.6 seconds per standardised lap, with the Honda just behind on 1.8. The Lada Granta is on average 3.1 seconds off the pace, with the two fastest laps of each car type used for the FIA’s calculation.

Compensation Weight for Race of Hungary

Car – Time Diff. – Ballast – Final Weight
Citroën C-Elysée WTCC – 0.0s – +60kg – 1,160kg
Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 – +1.6s – +0kg – 1,100kg
Honda Civic WTCC – +1.8s – +0kg – 1,100kg
Lada Granta Sport – +3.1s – +0kg – 1,100kg