This weekend the German circuit of Oschersleben held the latest round of the WTCC, and Gabriele Tarquini, at the wheel of his SEAT León painted in the Repsol colours, moved to the top of the driver classification. Tarquini was 2nd in the first round, and 3rd in the second, results that meant he overtook his teammate Yvan Muller in the overall.
Starting from pole position, Gabriele Tarquini took control of the first race with Rickard Rydell behind him. These two were passed by Andy Priaulx, but they knew how to defend their positions to the finish, and won some important points for the championship. Their teammates had varying degrees of luck, Jordi Gené & Tiago Monteiro were involved in an accident on the first cortner, and Yvan Muller was forced to retire at the halfway mark after a small collision with Augusto Farfus.
In the second race Gabriele Tarquini put in an outstanding performance, taking his SEAT León TDI from 8th to 3rd position, giving him another podium and moving him to the top of the overall driver classification. Yvan Muller also put in a good race, climbing to 7th place from the back of the grid, and winning points that will be very valuable at the end of the season. Jordi Gené retired just after the start, whilst Rickard Rydell was delayed at the start. Tiago Monteiro also had a good race, but unfortunately was in a small collision on the final lap.
The differences between the contenders were small, as the team engineers expected, as they knew that at Oschersleben they faced one of the most difficult races left this season. Only 2 points separate SEAT from BMW in the constructors` classification, and Gabriele Tarquini has the same gap over Augusto Farfus, 2nd. Yvan Muller is 3rd as he lost a lot of points after being involved in a incident in an earlier race. The efforts of the Repsol drivers were excellent since the changes in the technical rules mean that the race speeds for the León TDI are lower than at the start of the season.
Gabriele Tarquini:
“I am a little frustrated, because of in spite of having a good practice and getting the pole I did not have enough speed to fight with my rivals for the race. The FIA has lowered our performance and we can do nothing about it. This is our level at this moment in time and that is why, although I am pleased with being the championship leader, I know that the race at Imola is going to be much tougher than last year”.
