2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal

2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal

Race details
Round 7 of 12 in the 2013 World Touring Car Championship at Circuito da Boavista in Porto, Portugal.
Date	30 June, 2013
Location	Porto, Portugal
Course	Circuito da Boavista 4.800 kilometres (2.983 mi)
Race One
Laps 12 Pole position Driver Yvan Muller RML Time 2:05.347 Podium First Yvan Muller RML Second Tom Chilton RML Third Michel Nykjær NIKA Racing Fastest Lap Driver Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing Team Time 2:07.228
Race Two
Laps 11 Podium First James Nash bamboo-engineering Second Robert Huff Münnich Motorsport Third Michel Nykjær NIKA Racing Fastest Lap Driver Yvan Muller RML Time 2:07.452

The 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal was the seventh round of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season, the seventh running of the FIA WTCC Race of Portugal and the final European round of the season. It was held on 30 June 2013 at the Circuito da Boavista street circuit in Porto, Portugal.

Race one was won from pole position by Yvan Muller for RML. The second race was won by James Nash driving for bamboo-engineering.

Background

At the halfway point of the season, Yvan Muller was leading the drivers' championship and Michel Nykjær was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

The Honda Civic WTCCs dropped 30 kg when the compensation weights were revised after the previous round. The BMW 320 TCs received an extra 20 kg of ballast, making them the second heaviest cars on the grid behind the Chevrolets. ^[1]

Pepe Oriola switched from his SEAT León WTCC to a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T leased from RML and run by Tuenti Racing Team. ^[2] Hugo Valente was originally scheduled to miss the Portuguese round but rejoined Campos Racing when a third car was made spare by Oriola's switch to Chevrolet. Tom Boardman also rejoined the field having missed the Austrian and Russian rounds. ^[3]

Report

Free practice

ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel was fastest in free practice one, leading the Chevrolet pair of Muller and Oriola. The Honda trio led by Gabriele Tarquini were fourth, fifth and sixth while Robert Huff was the leading SEAT driver in seventh. Mikhail Kozlovskiy and Tom Chilton had brushes with the walls during the session while Hugo Valente crashed head–on into the barriers at turn four after missing his braking point. ^[4]

Muller was the quickest driver in free practice two, over five–tenths quicker than Tarquini in the Honda. The session interrupted early on when Tiago Monteiro suffered an engine problem on his Honda Civic and came to a stop at turn thirteen. Several drivers held the fastest time before Muller put in his best time a few minutes from the end of the session. Kozlovskiy spent much of the session in the pits when he damaged his rear–left wheel while Nikolay Karamyshev crashed at turn twenty at the end of the session. ^[5]

Qualifying

With the Circuito da Boavista being a street circuit, Q1 was extended from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and Q2 was extended from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Alex MacDowall lost control of his Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet during Q1 and spun into one of barriers, he damaged both ends of his car but was able to drive back to the pits. Monteiro was still suffering from turbo problems which had brought his running in free practice two to an early end, he got out in Q1 but ended the session 17th. Fernando Monje had a small collision with a tyre wall which cause some minor damage to the side of his Campos Racing SEAT, Mehdi Bennani had a slow-speed head-on collision in the same place at the end of the session. Kozlovskiy didn't set a time with his car being stuck in the garage for the duration of qualifying due to a damaged subframe.^{[ citation needed ]}

Q2 was interrupted by a red flag early on when Oriola crashed at turn three. James Thompson had got through to Q2 and on his only run during the session put himself fifth on the grid. Norbert Michelisz was the last driver to set a quick lap but cut a chicane meaning the lap wouldn't count, he ended up fourth on the grid as the quickest Honda. At the end of the session, Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3 with Chilton second and Nykjær third. Coronel was tenth in Q2 which would secure him pole position for race two. ^[6]

The results of qualifying were later amended after a transponder error recorded the wrong times for Tarquini and Oriola in Q2. Tarquini moved up one place to 5th while Oriola moved up from 12th to 6th. Thompson dropped two places to seventh while Huff, Marc Basseng, James Nash and Coronel each dropped one place. This put Nash on pole position for race two. ^[7] An engine change for Monje sent the Campos Racing driver to the back of the grid for race one. ^[8]

Warm-Up

Following the alterations to the qualifying results on Saturday evening, Coronel elected to miss Sunday morning's warm–up session in protest. The ROAL Motorsport team were informed of the change outside of the one-hour window in which they would have been allowed to protest the result. ^[9]

Zengő Motorsport driver Michelisz led a Honda 1–2 in the fifteen-minute session, factory driver Monteiro was second. Fredy Barth was seventh, he had to pull over early on when the bonnet of his BMW blew open when he left the pit lane. ^[10]

Race One

Muller led away from pole position ahead of teammate Chilton, Tarquini and Oriola were soon past Michelisz while Huff got ahead of Thompson. Further around the lap, Boardman tried to pass Bennani at the turn 6 chicane but lost control under braking, cutting across the chicane and collecting Bennani who later retired. Huff was now after Michelisz's sixth place although, on lap two Michelisz ran wide and crashed into the barriers with Huff close behind avoiding the accident. Michelisz attempted to return to the pits to get the car repaired but he struggled with broken suspension on the right side of his car and pulled off further around the lap. Tarquini who had been running fourth dropped out of the race late on with turbo problems, after trying to return to the pits he stopped at turn 13. A recovery truck was out on circuit to recover the stranded car of Tarquini, Barth spun when trying to avoid it while Franz Engstler didn't see the vehicle around the corner at turn 12 and ran into the back of it. The safety car was deployed on lap The race resumed on the last lap, Monteiro passed Nash to take the final points position while Boardman and O'Young collided with Boardman going into the barriers. Up ahead of them, Basseng lost out to Coronel and D'Aste. At the end of the race Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3–4 ahead of Chilton, Nykjær and Oriola; Nykjær in third took the independents' victory. ^[11]

After the race, Valente was given a 30–second time penalty and 10–place grid penalty for the first race in Argentina for ignoring yellow flags and causing a collision. Kozlovskiy and René Münnich were penalised for breaking the speed limit at the rolling start and given a 30–second penalty and a suspended 10–place grid penalty respectively. Boardman was issued with a 30–second penalty and a suspended 10–place grid penalty for his first lap collision with Bennani. ^[12]

Race Two

Nash was under attack from Huff and Basseng from the start but maintained the lead while Chilton jumped ahead of Oriola. Oriola re–passed Chilton at the hairpin allowing Muller, Coronel and Bennani also to get through. Nash and Huff broke away from a train of cars led by Basseng, on lap three Nykjær passed Thompson to take fourth place at the final chicane. On lap four Oriola was attempting a pass on Thompson but made a mistake and cut the second chicane, he was required to give the place back on the exit of turn 7, Muller tried to follow Thompson but Oriola shut the door on the RML driver when the pair arrived side–by–side at turn 9. At the end of lap 4 Nykjær took third place from Basseng while lap 5 saw Monje retire with broken suspension along the Avenida Da Boavista. By lap 6 Nykjær was trailing Huff who was staying ahead despite cutting chicanes on a number of occasions, something for which he was later investigated for. On lap eight Oriola passed Thompson just before the final chicane to take fifth place, Thompson then cut the chicane when he was tapped from behind by Muller. Oriola then moved up to fourth on lap 10 when Basseng ran wide across the grass at turn two. Also on that lap, Barth collided head on with one of the barriers at turn eight; his car was left there covered by yellow flags for the remainder of the race. At the end of the race one lap later, Nash took the overall and independents' wins with Huff second and Nykjær third. ^[13]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Points
1	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		2:05.979	2:05.347	5
2	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		2:06.993	2:05.545	4
3	17	Michel Nykjær	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	2:06.461	2:05.977	3
4	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		2:06.876	2:06.033	2
5	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		2:06.522	2:06.172	1
6	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		2:07.539	2:06.414
7	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		2:07.449	2:06.552
8	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		2:07.060	2:06.660
9	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		2:07.442	2:06.663
10	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	2:07.319	2:06.902
11	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		2:07.299	2:06.903
12	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:07.386	2:07.065
13	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:07.560
14	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:08.045
15	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:08.146
16	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:08.160
17	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		2:08.209
18	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	2:08.678
19	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	2:08.716
20	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	2:08.778
21	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	2:09.122
22	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	2:09.361
23	21	Nikolay Karamyshev	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	2:09.551
24	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	2:10.350
107% time: 2:14.797
–	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		no time set
Source: [14] [15]

• Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	27:38.637	1	25
2	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+0.343	2	18
3	17	Michel Nykjær	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+0.665	3	15
4	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+1.138	6	12
5	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		12	+2.493	8	10
6	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		12	+3.662	7	8
7	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		12	+6.333	11	6
8	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+6.416	14	4
9	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		12	+6.977	17	2
10	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		12	+7.576	9	1
11	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+10.632	10
12	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+11.014	15
13	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	12	+11.953	21
14	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+12.291	19
15	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+12.842	24
16	21	Nikolay Karamyshev	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+13.234	22
17	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+13.736	16
18	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+41.485	20
19	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		12	+1:03.630	25
20	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	11	+1 Lap	18
21	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	9	+3 Laps	12
Ret	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	8		23
Ret	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		7	Turbo	5
Ret	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	3	Race incident	13
Ret	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		1	Race incident	4
Source: [16]

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	14	James Nash	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	11	23:41.247	1	25
2	1	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		11	+5.624	3	18
3	17	Michel Nykjær	NIKA Racing	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	11	+6.012	6	15
4	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing Team	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		11	+6.368	5	12
5	38	Marc Basseng	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC		11	+7.946	2	10
6	10	James Thompson	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		11	+8.683	4	8
7	12	Yvan Muller	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		11	+9.336	8	6
8	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		11	+9.805	9	4
9	23	Tom Chilton	RML	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		11	+10.178	7	2
10	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+10.669	10	1
11	18	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		11	+11.019	14
12	26	Stefano D'Aste	PB Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+11.560	11
13	55	Darryl O'Young	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+15.262	12
14	20	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	11	+23.847	17
15	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+30.812	15
16	21	Nikolay Karamyshev	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	11	+31.836	19
17	9	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	11	+32.306	18
18	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	11	+33.542	22
19	8	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	Lukoil Lada Sport	Lada Granta		11	+34.673	25
20	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team	Honda Civic WTCC		11	+36.144	21
21	73	Fredy Barth	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	9	+2 Laps	13
Ret	37	René Münnich	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	SEAT León WTCC	Y	7		24
Ret	19	Fernando Monje	Campos Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	4	Race incident	16
DNS	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	0	Did not start	23
DNS	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	Honda Civic WTCC		0	Did not start	20
Source: [17]

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 282 1 2 Michel Nykjær 160 1 3 James Nash 138 1 4 Robert Huff 135 3 5 Gabriele Tarquini 134

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michel Nykjær 112 2 James Nash 108 3 Alex MacDowall 78 4 Mehdi Bennani 60 5 Stefano D'Aste 51

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 566 2 Lada 366

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

References

1. Hudson, Neil (14 June 2013). "Honda get significant weight break for Porto". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
2. Hudson, Neil (9 June 2013). "Pepe Oriola set to switch to Chevrolet from Portugal". Touting Car Times. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
3. "A FIELD OF 25 CARS TO RACE IN PORTO". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 21 June 2013. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
4. "PRACTICE 1 - CORONEL IS FASTEST". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 29 June 2013. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
5. Hudson, Neil (29 June 2013). "Yvan Muller dominates second practice at Porto". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
6. Tremayne, Sam (29 June 2013). "Porto WTCC: Yvan Muller takes commanding pole". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 29 June 2013.
7. "TIMING MISTAKES RESHUFFLE POSITIONS". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 29 June 2013. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
8. "ENGINE CHANGE FOR MONJE'S CAR". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 29 June 2013. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
9. Hudson, Neil (30 June 2013). "Tom Coronel absconds from morning warm-up at Porto". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
10. "MICHELISZ AND MONTEIRO TOP WARM UP". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 30 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
11. Abbott, Andrew (30 June 2013). "Muller takes fifth win of season in Porto". Touring-Cars.net. Andrew Abbott. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
12. "FOUR DRIVERS PENALIZED AFTER RACE 1". World Touring Car Championship . Kigema Sport Organisation. 30 June 2013. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
13. Tremayne, Sam (30 June 2013). "Porto WTCC: James Nash escapes from action to clinch race two win". Autosport . Haymarket Publications . Retrieved 30 June 2013.
14. "2013 World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal: Qualifying 1". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
15. "2013 World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal: Qualifying 2". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
16. "2013 World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal: Race 1". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
17. "2013 World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal: Race 2". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 13 April 2021.

External links

• World Touring Car Championship official website

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