2012 FIA WTCC Race of Spain

2012 Race of Spain
Race details
	Round 2 of 12 in the 2012 World Touring Car Championship at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain.
Date	1 April, 2012
Location	Valencia, Spain
Course	Circuit Ricardo Tormo ; 4.005 kilometres (2.489 mi)
Race One
Laps
Laps	13
Pole position
Driver
Time
Podium
First
Second
Third
Fastest Lap
Driver
Time
Race Two
Laps
Laps	13
Podium
First
Second
Third
Fastest Lap
Driver
Time

Last updated July 02, 2022

The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Spain was the second round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the eighth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Spain . It was held on 1 April 2012 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. Chevrolet driver Yvan Muller took pole position for the first race, with Wiechers-Sport's Stefano D'Aste on pole for the second race after the top ten qualifiers were reversed. Both races were won by Chevrolet with Muller winning race one and Alain Menu winning race two.

Background

After the opening round in Italy, Muller was leading the drivers' championship. D'Aste was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

A continued shortage of the new for 2012 SEAT 1.6T engine meant the cars run by SUNRED Engineering switched to the SUNRED 1.6T engine prior to the Race of Spain. Tiago Monteiro and Andrea Barlesi would switch to the engine and they were joined by series debutant Fernando Monje.^[1] Monje joined the championship, having competed in the supporting European Touring Car Cup at Monza. Tom Boardman returned to the championship having been forced to sit out the opening round. With no SEAT 1.6T engine available for him, he took part in the event using the TDI engine.^[2]

Report

Free practice

Muller led the opening practice session on Saturday morning with Robert Huff second and Menu third. Pepe Oriola was the fastest SEAT León WTCC while Monteiro was the fastest of the three SUNRED engined cars.^[3]

Gabriele Tarquini went quickest in the second free practice session in his Lukoil Racing Team SEAT. ROAL Motorsport driver Tom Coronel had set the pace for much of the session until his time was beaten by Huff and then Tarquini in the final five minutes of the session. Charles Ng was given a black flag after getting stuck in a gravel trap on his first flying lap and then continuing in the session after receiving outside help. Six drivers were warned for cutting the apex at the first corner.^[4]

Qualifying

Muller secured his first pole position of the year in qualifying ahead of Tarquini and Coronel. Oriola took the independents' pole with fourth place. Tarquini had been fastest in the first part of qualifying but Muller had been close to going out in the first element of qualifying. Muller had his best time removed for running too wide but he ended the session eighth after a last minute flying lap. By finishing tenth in second qualifying, D'Aste secured the pole position on the reversed grid in race two. The session was not stopped at any time but after the session, the Lukoil Racing car of Aleksei Dudukalo caught fire in Parc Ferme.^[5]

Warm-Up

Huff led the warm up session on Sunday morning with pole sitter Muller second fastest.^[6]

Race One

Muller led from start to finish to secure his third straight victory of the year. Tarquini had got a better launch from the rolling start but Muller was able to defend and from then on Tarquini's main threat was from Coronel behind. Coronel had received a black and white driving standards flag for making contact with Tarquini but continued on to the final podium spot. Huff and Menu climbed up to fourth and fifth respectively at the expense of Oriola, but sixth place was still enough to secure the independents' victory for Oriola. Monteiro was able to finish in the top ten in his SUNRED-powered car while the only car that failed to finish was Dudukalo.^[7]

Race Two

Menu ended Muller's winning streak in race two by coming home ahead of Coronel and D'Aste. Wiechers-Sport driver D'Aste had led until lap seven when he ran wide and handed the lead to Menu. Both Menu and D'Aste then hit oil two laps later sending them across the gravel at turn ten and promoting Coronel to second. Coronel battled with Menu for the lead in the final laps but held on to take the win by less than a second. Menu's Chevrolet was followed home by four BMW 320 TCs as Norbert Michelisz and Franz Engstler followed Coronel and D'Aste.^[8]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Points
1	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:43.458	1:42.228	5
2	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		1:42.933	1:42.591	4
3	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		1:43.323	1:42.643	3
4	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:43.340	1:42.829	2
5	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:43.427	1:42.862	1
6	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:43.483	1:42.994
7	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:43.683	1:43.108
8	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:43.230	1:43.410
9	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:42.975	1:43.472
10	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:43.850	1:43.544
11	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		1:43.801	1:43.640
12	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:43.391	1:43.832
13	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:43.889
14	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:43.951
15	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:44.060
16	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:44.126
17	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:44.316
18	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:44.342
19	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:44.435
20	88	Fernando Monje	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	1:44.509
21	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:44.702
22	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	1:44.703
23	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	1:45.124
24	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:45.716

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		13	22:53.924	1	25
2	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		13	+6.988	2	18
3	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		13	+7.232	3	15
4	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		13	+8.982	5	12
5	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		13	+9.250	9	10
6	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	13	+10.614	4	8
7	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+11.854	6	6
8	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+12.202	7	4
9	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		13	+21.185	11	2
10	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	13	+24.010	12	1
11	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+25.349	10
12	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		13	+30.104	16
13	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+30.282	13
14	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+30.685	15
15	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	13	+31.373	14
16	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+32.187	19
17	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+33.507	17
18	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+34.050	24
19	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		13	+34.372	21
20	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	13	+36.599	22
21	88	Fernando Monje	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	13	+37.377	20
22	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	13	+37.926	18
23	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	13	+51.999	23
NC	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	6	+7 Laps	8

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		13	23:03.207	2	25
2	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		13	+0.861	8	18
3	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+1.306	1	15
4	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+1.629	5	12
5	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+1.901	4	10
6	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		13	+3.007	6	8
7	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	13	+5.704	7	6
8	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		13	+6.368	10	4
9	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		13	+15.044	9	2
10	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+15.306	15	1
11	24	Isaac Tutumlu	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	13	+19.838	19
12	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	13	+21.166	3
13	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		13	+21.865	11
14	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	13	+23.167	14
15	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		13	+25.024	21
16	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	13	+27.071	18
17	40	Andrea Barlesi	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	13	+50.229	23
18	88	Fernando Monje	SUNRED Engineering	SR León 1.6T	Y	13	+1:04.377	20
19	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+3 Laps	24
Ret	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		8	Suspension	16
Ret	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	4	Overheating	12
Ret	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1	Suspension	13
Ret	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	0	Accident	22
DNS	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	0	Clutch	17

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Yvan Muller	88
1	2	Alain Menu	61
1	3	Tom Coronel	58
2	4	Robert Huff	57
	5	Gabriele Tarquini	44

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
1	1	Pepe Oriola	31
1	2	Stefano D'Aste	28
2	3	Norbert Michelisz	27
	4	Franz Engstler	25
2	5	Alex MacDowall	16

Manufacturers' Championship standings

	Pos	Manufacturer	Points
	1	Chevrolet	173
1	2	BMW Customer Racing Teams	108
1	3	SEAT Racing Technology	101

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

Related Research Articles

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References

↑ Mills, Peter (30 March 2012). "Tiago Monteiro, Andrea Barlesi and Fernando Monje to switch engines for Valencia WTCC round". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 20 December 2012.
↑ Allen, Peter (28 March 2012). "Tom Boardman Raring To Go In Valencia". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
↑ Hudson, Neil (31 March 2012). "Yvan Muller leads the way in Free Practice 1". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
↑ Hudson, Neil (31 March 2012). "Gabriele Tarquini tops FP2 in Spain". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
↑ Auger, Matt (31 March 2012). "Muller secures Valencia pole". TouringCars.net. Andrew Abbott. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
↑ Hudson, Neil (1 April 2012). "Rob Huff leads the way in Valencia warm up". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
↑ Allen, Peter (1 April 2012). "Muller Continues Winning Start With Dominant Valencia Victory". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
↑ Mills, Peter (1 April 2012). "Alain Menu battles to Valencia World Touring Car race two win". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 21 December 2012.

External links

World Touring Car Championship
Previous race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Italy	2012 World Touring Car Championship season	Next race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco
Previous race: 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Spain	FIA WTCC Race of Spain	Next race: no race

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[1] Mills, Peter (30 March 2012). "Tiago Monteiro, Andrea Barlesi and Fernando Monje to switch engines for Valencia WTCC round". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 20 December 2012.

[2] Allen, Peter (28 March 2012). "Tom Boardman Raring To Go In Valencia". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 20 December 2012.

[3] Hudson, Neil (31 March 2012). "Yvan Muller leads the way in Free Practice 1". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.

[4] Hudson, Neil (31 March 2012). "Gabriele Tarquini tops FP2 in Spain". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.

[5] Auger, Matt (31 March 2012). "Muller secures Valencia pole". TouringCars.net. Andrew Abbott. Retrieved 21 December 2012.

[6] Hudson, Neil (1 April 2012). "Rob Huff leads the way in Valencia warm up". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.

[7] Allen, Peter (1 April 2012). "Muller Continues Winning Start With Dominant Valencia Victory". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 21 December 2012.

[8] Mills, Peter (1 April 2012). "Alain Menu battles to Valencia World Touring Car race two win". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 21 December 2012.

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2012 FIA WTCC Race of Spain

Contents

Background

Report

Free practice

Qualifying

Warm-Up

Race One

Race Two

Results

Qualifying

Race 1

Race 2

Standings after the round

Related Research Articles

References

External links