WTCC Round 21 & 22 Okayama

[PenguinScotty]

Was a very good weekend for the championship.

Qualifying was set in the dry, with Tarquini pulling a very fast top 10 time before the end, grabing pole position. Priaulx took second and Farfus was back in 5th place for the first race.

Race 1

Rain hit Okayama hard, resulting in a slight advantage for seats for the first race.
Race was started behind the safety car after 2 sighting laps, to let the drivers check out the conditions.

Tarquini managed to get away, just to run wide in, i think, turn 3, which dropped him quite a bit back. However, Farfus did the same thing and also dropped many places. Priaulx and Müller were first and second and finished that way as well.
Rain was nuts with quite a bit of standing water. Some good fights going on, including Müllers attack on Priaulx during the last few laps. Not sure why Müller was so disappointed, however.

Tarquini was let past by a few cars, resulting in a 5th place.

Farfus managed to pass Menu, albeit with a bit of a shunt , to finish 8th in the first race.

Race 2

Rain picked up, resulting in even more standing water. Standing start resulted in Farfus getting away nicely, Müller also having a good run, up to 4th.
First corner was a bit of a mess. Müller ran in very hot and took out Monteyro, which in return resulted in Tarquini having to go off track as well as quite a few other cars, which continued in turn 2.

Because of that mess, Priaulx managed to get up to 2nd, behind Farfus and infront of Muller.

The Ladas were running quite well, just for Thompson and Van Lagen to drop out later on.

Chevrolet was doing not bad either, some great battles in mid-field.

In the end, Tarquini was let past by Gene and Rydell (something i don't agree with, but that's a personal opinion ), to finish 7th overall, bagging some points.

Current standings

Tarquini - 115 pts
Y. Muller - 113 pts
Farfus - 102 pts
Priaulx - 84 pts

I'm glad that the second race turned out the way it did, simply because of championship reasons. It's going to be another great fight at Macau on the 22nd of November.

Cheers!

[Vince S.]

I missed the live Race 1. But caught up to Race 2. Man...what a race!

Too bad for Jorg, but I was monitoring his position on mstworld. He climbed up to 16 from 22 I believe within a few laps. Unfortunately, the TV was focusing on the fight in the front and mid pack.

[PenguinScotty]

Ideed, it was really great. First one is worth a watch as well if you can grab it somewhere. Jorg was pushing Priaulx really ahrd during the last few laps. How come you never see the Seats do that ...

Yeah, i don't like 'manufacturer orders'.

[Vince S.]

The rain really in some strange ways helped BMWs. Last year, SEATs took victories in both races with BMWs very close behind.

I think Farfus broke the lap record during qualifying at 1:37.040?

Manufacturer's orders...I know. I wonder how the universal team order works across the SEAT drivers. Is there a magic button to switch to an universal line, thus talking to ALL SEAT drivers? Or is it disseminated in a decentralized fashion? And what if..during the last lap, the radio malfunctioned for Rydell. Ought to be interesting.

[Glenn 328is]

Can you guys tell me where I can download the season please?