2013 FIA WTCC Race of China

2013 FIA WTCC Race of China

Race details
Round 11 of 12 in the 2013 World Touring Car Championship at Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.
Date	3 November, 2013
Location	Shanghai, China
Course	Shanghai International Circuit 4.603 kilometres (2.860 mi)
Race One
Laps 12 Pole position Driver Yvan Muller RML Time 1:53.486 Podium First Tom Chilton RML Second Yvan Muller RML Third James Nash bamboo-engineering Fastest Lap Driver Stefano D'Aste PB Racing Time 2:01.528
Race Two
Laps 10 Podium First Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda Team Second Gabriele Tarquini Castrol Honda Team Third Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport Fastest Lap Driver Tiago Monteiro Castrol Honda Team Time 1:55.568

The 2013 FIA WTCC Race of China was the eleventh round of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season and the third running of the FIA WTCC Race of China. It was held on 3 November 2013 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China.

Race one was won by Tom Chilton of RML and race two was won by Tiago Monteiro for the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team.

Background

Yvan Muller secured the drivers' title at the previous round in Japan. James Nash was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

When the weights were re-calculated, the Honda Civic WTCCs gained 20 kg of ballast to equal them with the Chevrolet Cruze 1.6Ts on 1,190 kg. The SEAT León WTCCs, BMW 320 TCs and Lada Granta WTCCs remained on 1,130 kg. The Volvo C30 received 20 kg of ballast to set it at 1,170 kg. ^[1]

Rickard Rydell returned to the championship with NIKA Racing, replacing Hiroki Yoshimoto who had other commitments. ^[2] Fredy Barth returned to Wiechers-Sport with the displaced Yukinori Taniguchi moving to Campos Racing alongside Fernando Monje and Hugo Valente. ^[3] Volvo Polestar Racing entered a Volvo C30 for 2013 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship champion Thed Björk for a one–off appearance. ^[4]

Report

Testing and free practice

Yvan Muller set the pace in Friday's test session by almost two tenths of a second ahead of Tom Coronel, with Chilton completing the top three placings. ^[5]

Thed Björk set the pace in free practice one, his first two laps of the session were both quickest. Gabriele Tarquini in second and Rickard Rydell in third were the only other drivers to break through the 1 minutes 55 seconds barrier. Pepe Oriola failed to set a timed lap due to power steering issues while Mehdi Bennani had a broken driveshaft on his Proteam Racing BMW. ^[6]

Muller was ahead in free practice two with Björk a close second, Chilton was third ahead of James Thompson. Bennani suffered once again with technical problems which limited his running. ^[7]

Qualifying

Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3–4–5–6 in qualifying, RML teammate Chilton was second with the Tuenti Racing car of Oriola third. The bamboo-engineering pair of James Nash and Alex MacDowall were next up followed by series returnee Rydell in sixth. Norbert Michelisz was the leading Honda in seventh ahead of outgoing champion Robert Huff. The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team pairing of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro were ninth and tenth ensuring they would lock out the front row for race two. Franz Engstler made it through to Q2 and finished 11th fastest. Franz Engstler was one place ahead of Björk who was ineligible to score points in the nationally homologated Volvo and was therefore required to sit out Q2. ^[8]

After qualifying, Björk's Volvo was found to be underweight and he was given a five–place grid penalty. ^[9]

Warm-Up

Björk was quickest in Sunday morning's warm–up session, pole sitter Muller was seventh. ^[10]

Race One

The track was damp after earlier rainfall and the decision was taken to start the race behind the safety car, some cars elected to run on wet tyres. The safety car went in and the race started on lap three, Oriola was the leading car on wet tyres and he passed Chilton and Muller to take the lead on the first lap. Hugo Valente went off into the gravel after being tagged and spun across in front of Engstler. Rydell moved up to fifth at the expense of MacDowall and was then able to pass Nash to move up to fourth. At the back of the field Mak Ka Lok spun on the back straight but continued without incident while up ahead the cars on wet tyres were not getting a consistent advantage. Huff had a moment on the entry of turn 1 but he was soon closing in on the Bamboo Engineering pair, he passed MacDowall on lap 5. MacDowall got 6th place back from Huff, Tarquini was now within range of Huff on lap 6. On lap 7 the advantage went back to the cars running on slick tyres, Muller and Chilton were closing the gap to Oriola, the three had built up a healthy gap to Rydell in fourth. Muller used the extra grip from his tyres to retake the lead before the end of lap 7, Chilton did so a few corners later at the start of lap 8. Nash briefly took fourth back from Rydell but the NIKA Racing driver soon retook the position, the two were at the head of a long train of cars. At the end of the back straight Nash, MacDowall and Tarquini passed Rydell at the hairpin while Huff and Michelisz were running close, they came together at the first corner on lap 9. By lap 10 Rydell had dropped out of the points while Oriola was in an increasingly distant third place. Thompson used the straightline advantage of his Lada to take 9th on Monteiro who was now under attack from the SEAT of Tom Boardman. Oriola's third place was also under threat from Nash on the final lap while Boardman tapped the back of Monteiro and went through into the final points position. Muller and Chilton were close as they headed down the back straight for the last time, the two ran side by side at the final corner with Chilton claiming victory at the line by one hundredth of a second. Nash and MacDowall moved into third and fourth on the last lap, Nash taking the Yokohama Trophy victory. In the Eurosport Asia Trophy, Taniguchi claimed victory with 21st place ahead of Felipe De Souza in one of the naturally aspirated Chevrolets. ^[11]

Race Two

Monteiro retained his lead while there was a collision with Coronel and Rydell at turn one. Michelisz in third was defending from Huff with Nash and Muller close behind. On lap four yellow flags were out in the final sector for the car of Jerónimo Badaraco which had stopped near the finish line. Muller had been chasing down Nash for a couple of laps when he passed around the outside of the Bamboo Chevrolet at the first corner of lap 7, elevating Muller to 5th place. Barth and Darryl O'Young came together at the final hairpin at the end of lap 7, the incident also delayed MacDowall who had dropped downt he field after a slow start. Nash lost another position to Coronel at the end of lap 8 while just up the road Muller was attacking Huff who was in turn trying to pass Michelisz for third place. Muller had a close battle with Huff on the final lap but Huff held on to take fourth while Monteiro led a Honda 1–2–3 across the line. Nash took his second independents' victory of the day and Taniguchi claimed his second Asia Trophy victory of the day. ^[12]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Points
1	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:54.132	1:53.486	5
2	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:54.886	1:53.868	4
3	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:54.225	1:54.008	3
4	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:54.777	1:54.034	2
5	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:54.942	1:54.054	1
6	69	Rickard Rydell	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:54.873	1:54.215
7	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		1:55.081	1:54.576
8	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		1:54.541	1:54.623
9	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		1:54.637	1:54.666
10	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		1:54.505	1:54.959
11	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:55.164	1:55.624
12	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		155.204
13	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		1:55.316
14	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		1:55.434
15	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:55.535
16	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:55.581
17 1	40	Thed Björk	Volvo Polestar Racing	Volvo C30 DRIVe	*	1:54.826
18	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:55.591
19	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:55.610
20	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:55.719
21	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		1:55.920
22	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:56.171
23	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:56.282
24	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:56.359
25	33	Yukinori Taniguchi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	YA	1:57.128
26	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:58.448
27	88	Henry Ho	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	YA	1:58.865
28	60	Felipe De Souza	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	1:59.230
29	61	Kin Veng Ng	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	2:00.337
30	77	Mak Ka Lok	RPM Racing	BMW 320si	YA	2:01.838
107% time: 2:02.141
–	66	Jerónimo Badaraco	Son Veng Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	no time set

• Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

^1 — Björk originally qualified 12th but his car was later found to be underweight, having not been fitted with ballast to compensate for the lack of a camera on board. ^[9]

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	26:28.234	2	25
2	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+0.010	1	18
3	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+14.737	4	15
4	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+15.455	5	12
5	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+16.441	3	10
6	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		12	+16.585	8	8
7	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		12	+16.799	9	6
8	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		12	+16.825	13	4
9	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+16.931	19	2
10	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		12	+17.683	7	1
11	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		12	+18.017	10
12	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		12	+18.079	12
13	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+22.899	11
14	69	Rickard Rydell	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+27.546	6
15	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		12	+29.496	14
16	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+42.004	24
17	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		12	+45.122	21
18	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+47.010	22
19	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+48.590	20
20	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+1:02.102	18
21	33	Yukinori Taniguchi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	YA	12	+1:03.596	25
22	60	Felipe De Souza	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	12	+1:03.800	28
23	88	Henry Ho	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	YA	12	+1:13.464	27
24	66	Jerónimo Badaraco	Son Veng Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	12	+1:29.654	31
25	77	Mak Ka Lok	RPM Racing	BMW 320si	YA	12	+2:03.392	30
26	61	Kin Veng Ng	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	11	+1 Lap	29
27	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+1 Lap	16
28	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+1 Lap	26
29	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	11	+1 Lap	23
Ret	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	7	Race incident	15
DNS	40	Thed Björk	Volvo Polestar Racing	Volvo C30 DRIVe	*	0	Battery	17

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		10	19:26.090	1	25
2	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		10	+1.178	2	18
3	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		10	+4.143	4	15
4	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		10	+5.470	3	12
5	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+5.739	10	10
6	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	10	+7.423	7	8
7	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+7.987	8	6
8	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		10	+8.042	12	4
9	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+11.407	26	2
10	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		10	+13.608	9	1
11	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	+16.659	19
12	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	+18.253	15
13	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	10	+18.497	6
14	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+19.087	24
15	40	Thed Björk	Volvo Polestar Racing	Volvo C30 DRIVe	*	10	+19.934	17
16	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+22.543	16
17	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		10	+25.335	13
18	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		10	+27.609	14
19	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	+30.126	23
20	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		10	+31.520	21
21	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	10	+31.885	20
22	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	10	+33.211	22
23	33	Yukinori Taniguchi	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	YA	10	+38.017	25
24	60	Felipe De Souza	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	10	+53.947	28
25	88	Henry Ho	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	YA	10	+54.519	27
26	61	Kin Veng Ng	China Dragon Racing	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	10	+1:25.975	29
27	77	Mak Ka Lok	RPM Racing	BMW 320si	YA	10	+1:43.366	30
28	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	8	+2 Laps	11
29	69	Rickard Rydell	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		7	+3 Laps	5
30	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	7	+3 Laps	18
Ret	66	Jerónimo Badaraco	Son Veng Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze LT	YA	1		31

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 393 2 Gabriele Tarquini 235 3 Tom Chilton 213 4 James Nash 206 5 Michel Nykjær 180

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 James Nash 171 2 Michel Nykjær 134 3 Alex MacDowall 130 4 Mehdi Bennani 94 5 Stefano D'Aste 84

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 940 2 Lada 581

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

References

1. Ferret, Oliver (18 October 2013). "WTCC - Same weight for Chevrolet and Honda". Nextgen-Auto. Nextgen-Auto.com. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
2. "Rickard Rydell to make WTCC return in Shanghai". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. 7 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
3. "Yukinori Taniguchi joins Campos Racing at Shanghai". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
4. "VOLVO POLESTAR TO RACE AT SHANGHAI". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
5. Tremayne, Sam (1 November 2013). "Shanghai WTCC: Yvan Muller puts Chevrolet on top in Friday testing". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 1 November 2013.
6. "PRACTICE 1 – THE VOLVO CREATES SURPRISE". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 2 November 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
7. "PRACTICE 2 – MULLER JUMPS BACK ON TOP". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 2 November 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
8. Tremayne, Sam (2 November 2013). "Shanghai WTCC: Yvan Muller leads all-RML Chevrolet front row". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 2 November 2013.
9. "GRID PENALTY FOR THE VOLVO CAR". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 2 November 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
10. "BJÖRK FASTEST IN THE WARM UP". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 3 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
11. Hudson, Neil (3 November 2013). "Tom Chilton wins in China with last corner pass on Yvan Muller". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
12. "RACE 2 – MONTEIRO CLAIMS FIRST WIN". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 3 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013.

External links

• World Touring Car Championship official website

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