2012 FIA WTCC Race of Italy

2012 Race of Italy

Race details
Round 1 of 12 in the 2012 World Touring Car Championship at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy.
Date	11 March, 2012
Location	Monza, Italy
Course	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza 5.793 kilometres (3.600 mi)
Race One
Laps 9 Pole position Driver Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing Team Time 1:57.917 Podium First Yvan Muller Chevrolet Second Robert Huff Chevrolet Third Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing Team Fastest Lap Driver Rickard Rydell Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Time 1:59.116
Race Two
Laps 9 Podium First Yvan Muller Chevrolet Second Alain Menu Chevrolet Third Robert Huff Chevrolet Fastest Lap Driver Robert Huff Chevrolet Time 1:59.000

The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Italy was the opening round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the eighth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Italy. It was held on 11 March 2012 at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy. Lukoil Racing driver Gabriele Tarquini took pole position for the first race, with Zengő Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz on pole for the second race after the top ten qualifiers were reversed. ^[1] Both races were won by Yvan Muller for Chevrolet.

Background

Chevrolet and BMW would once again be represented on the grid while SEAT returned with an official customer programme. Ford would also be on the grid courtesy of the independently run Team Aon Ford Focus driven by Tom Chilton and James Nash.

Chevrolet retained their lineup of defending drivers' champion Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu. ^[2] Darryl O'Young switched from bamboo-engineering to Special Tuning Racing. ^[3] He was to be joined by Tom Boardman but due to a shortage of the new Oreca built SEAT 1.6T engine his return to the championship was delayed until the Race of Spain. ^[4] 2011 STCC champion Rickard Rydell returned to the championship for the first round of the season driving a Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T. ^[5] Gábor Wéber joined Norbert Michelisz at Zengő Motorsport, Alex MacDowall and Pasquale di Sabatino lined up at bamboo-engineering and former Superstars Series driver Alberto Cerqui joined Tom Coronel at ROAL Motorsport. Charles Ng returned to Liqui Moly Team Engstler for a full season having raced for the team at the end of 2011. ^[6] Andrea Barlesi joined SUNRED Engineering in an old specification SEAT León TDI and Isaac Tutumlu joined Mehdi Bennani at Proteam Racing.

The qualifying format was changed prior to the event, with 12 cars progressing through to Q2 where the top 5 cars would score points. The top ten cars in Q2 would then be reversed to form the race two grid. ^[7]

Report

Free Practice

Chevrolet cars dominated the free testing session on Thursday; Muller led Huff, Menu, series rookie MacDowall and Rydell at the top of the times while Michelisz was best of the rest in his BMW 320 TC. ^[8]

Track action resumed on Saturday morning when Huff set the fastest time in the works Chevrolet in Free Practice 1, 0.241 seconds ahead of the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT of Gabriele Tarquini. The session was briefly stopped to clear oil from the track which had caught out Pepe Oriola and Tom Chilton. ^[9]

It was the turn of Menu to set the fastest time in the second free practice session, setting his fastest time at the beginning of the session and remaining there until the end. Tarquini was second once again with the SEAT producing consistent straight line speed. Although the session was not stopped, yellow flags went out as the SEAT of Barlesi was removed from the gravel trap at the Parabolica. ^[10]

Qualifying

Tarquini took pole position, the first non-Chevrolet pole since the 2010 Race of Spain, where pole was also taken by Tarquini in a SEAT. Muller would start on the front row but he only made it into Q2 thanks to a tow from his team mates, who lined up behind him on the second row. Q1 had been red flagged with under two minutes remaining as the ROAL Motorsport car of Cerqui ended up in the gravel trap at the Parabolica. The session was restarted but without enough time to complete a timed lap so most of the cars remained in the pits. Twelve cars progressed to Q2 with Oriola taking the independents' trophy pole and Michelisz claiming the reversed grid pole for race two. ^[11]

Warm-Up

Muller was fastest in the Sunday morning warm up session, that was stopped due to a fire for Special Tuning Racing driver O'Young. He stopped the car and evacuated; the damage was enough to rule him out of participating in the rest of the weekend. ^[12]

Race One

Tarquini started from pole but was soon passed by Muller. A mistake by Muller at the end of the lap allowed Tarquini to regain the lead but the positions switched back on lap two. Huff later passed Tarquini for second to seal a Chevrolet 1–2. A first lap collision forced Tiago Monteiro to retire and delayed Stefano D'Aste and Franz Engstler. Rydell ran as high as third during the race but had to settle for fourth at the end, ahead of Coronel and independents' trophy winner Oriola. Menu finished a distant seventh from his team mates and MacDowall was the top rookie with eighth. ^[13]

Race Two

Michelisz started on the reversed grid pole position and escaped many of the tangles that caught out some of the more experienced drivers behind him. A second lap nudge from Huff approaching the first chicane sent Muller into a spin and caught out Tarquini behind. Muller went through the chicane and across the grass backwards but he recovered without losing much time while Tarquini punctured a tyre and retired. From there, Muller picked off the cars ahead one at a time to catch up with race leader Michelisz. Passing Michelisz proved difficult and at one point, third placed Coronel was able to take second from Muller before losing it again shortly after. Michelisz struck a pigeon on lap seven and Muller passed him later on that lap. Michelisz lost some pace after this and dropped down the order, to fifth by the end of the lap, eventually finishing eighth. Rydell had a bad start and recovered to tenth place to score another point in his one off outing. Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3 with Menu second and Huff third; D'Aste was the Yokohama Trophy winner after finishing fifth. ^[14]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Points
1	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		1:58.004	1:57.915	5
2	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:58.191	1:57.974	4
3	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:58.243	1:58.106	3
4	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:58.527	1:58.200	2
5	9	Rickard Rydell	Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:59.144	1:58.319	1
6	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		1:59.120	1:58.389
7	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:58.532	1:58.412
8	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:59.262	1:58.507
9	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:58.942	1:58.649
10	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:58.524	1:58.652
11	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:59.187	1:58.931
12	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:59.350	1:59.348
13	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:59.435
14	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:59.563
15	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:59.723
16	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León TDi		1:59.743
17	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:59.841
18	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:59.891
19	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:59.949
20	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:00.300
21	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León TDI	Y	2:00.394
22	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:01.333
23	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	No time

• Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	26:01.705	2	25
2	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+0.446	3	18
3	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		12	+2.305	1	15
4	9	Rickard Rydell	Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+2.745	5	12
5	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		12	+3.796	6	10
6	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+6.111	7	8
7	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+6.326	4	6
8	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+8.287	8	4
9	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+8.431	10	2
10	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+9.257	16	1
11	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+9.465	11
12	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+12.082	12
13	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		12	+12.668	14
14	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+15.886	17
15	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+48.135	18
16	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		12	+56.503	13
17	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	Damage	22
18	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	Mechanical	9
Ret	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	2	Engine	21
Ret	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León TDI	Y	1	Collision	20
Ret	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1	Collision	19
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León TDi		0	Collision	15
DNS	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y		Fire at warm-up

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	20:07.643	9	25
2	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+0.307	7	18
3	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+0.613	8	15
4	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		10	+0.993	5	12
5	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+6.125	11	10
6	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+6.705	12	8
7	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	10	+7.247	3	6
8	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+10.238	1	4
9	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+12.663	16	2
10	9	Rickard Rydell	Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+14.066	6	1
11	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+14.202	22
12	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	+14.575	4
13	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		10	+18.279	13
14	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+18.775	19
15	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León TDI	Y	10	+24.880	20
16	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		10	+25.586	14
17	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+35.129	21
18	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León TDi		9	Mechanical	15
19	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	8	Mechanical	17
Ret	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		1	Accident	10
Ret	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1	Mechanical	18
DNS	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	0	Electrical	2
DNS	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y		Fire at warm-up

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.
• Pepe Oriola started from the pitlane.

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 54 2 Robert Huff 36 3 Alain Menu 26 4 Tom Coronel 22 5 Gabriele Tarquini 20

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Stefano D'Aste 14 2 Pepe Oriola 14 3 Alex MacDowall 14 4 Franz Engstler 12 5 Norbert Michelisz 11

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 93 2 SEAT Racing Technology 49 3 BMW Customer Racing Teams 49

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

1. Mills, Peter (10 March 2012). "Gabriele Tarquini puts SEAT on Monza World Touring Car pole". Autosport . Haymarket Publications. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
2. Rolland, Emmanuel (6 March 2012). "The 2012 season kicks off in Monza". Auto123.com. Xprima.com Corporation. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
3. "Darryl O'Young to join STR for 2012 WTCC". Special Tuning Racing. Tom Boardman. 29 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
4. Meissner, Johan (8 March 2012). "No Tom Boardman at Monza WTCC premiere". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
5. Veltman, Rob (4 February 2012). "Rydell aiming for opening WTCC rounds with new Cruze". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
6. Abbott, Andrew (27 February 2012). "Full season for Charles Ng". TouringCars.net. Andrew Abbott. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
7. Meissner, Johan (16 December 2011). "FIA releases updated Sporting Regulations for WTCC 2012". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 10 January 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
8. Meissner, Johan (8 March 2012). "Chevrolet 1–2–3–4–5 in first Monza test". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 7 June 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
9. Mills, Peter (10 March 2012). "Huff heads Tarquini and Muller in the opening practice session at Monza". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 8 December 2012.
10. Abbott, Andrew (10 March 2012). "Menu fastest from Tarquini in FP2". TouringCars.net. Andrew Abbott. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
11. Mills, Peter (10 March 2012). "Gabriele Tarquini puts SEAT on Monza World Touring Car pole". Autosport . Haymarket Publications. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
12. Hudson, Neil (11 March 2012). "Yvan Muller leads disrupted warm up at Monza". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
13. Mills, Peter (11 March 2012). "Yvan Muller passes Gabriele Tarquini to win World Touring Car Championship season-opener at Monza". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 8 December 2012.
14. Abbott, Andrew (11 March 2012). "Muller secures eventful Monza win". TouringCars.net. Andrew Abbott. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2012.

• Results Booklet PDF at FIAWTCC.com ^{[ permanent dead link ]}

World Touring Car Championship
Previous race: 2011 Guia Race of Macau	2012 World Touring Car Championship season	Next race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Spain
Previous race: 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Italy	FIA WTCC Race of Italy	Next race: 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Italy