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ADVAN Powers Farfus To Win On Home Track |
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Monday, 12 March 2007 |
Brazil’s opening round of the 2007 FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) went to the home fans’ favourite, Augusto Farfus Jr, after a stunning drive saw the Brazilian make the most of his ADVAN tyres.
Overtaking SEAT driver Yvan Muller for the lead, Farfus started to pull away right from the start and maintained a healthy lead for nearly the full 16 laps, much to the delight of Curitiba’s capacity crowd.
The BMW driver, who was born close to the circuit, pushed his tyres
right to the end of today’s second race as team-mate, Andy Priaulx,
started gaining on him in the final stages.
“We made a few
changes to the car after the first race,” said Farfus. ”I had a good
feeling with my engineer that this was going to work and it was
fantastic! I didn’t want to push too hard to start with but when I saw
that Andy was getting close, I decided to try and I found it really
easy to keep pushing.”
Race one’s rolling start proved to be
every bit as exciting as it promised with cars able to get up to speed
much sooner in the first lap. The early pace caught a few drivers out
with a first-corner incident but most used their tyres wisely, getting
as much heat as possible into them for maximum grip.
BMW claimed
the top three spots, with pole-sitter Jörg Müller maintaining his lead
throughout followed by fellow BMW drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto
Farfus Jr.
“This was a tough race,” said Müller. “But thankfully
I managed to hold everyone off and take the first win. It was a
difficult situation but at least I knew that the rolling start would be
ok; I had Andy and Augusto behind me so I knew I was safe.”
Yokohama
Europe Marketing Manager Kazuyoshi Sekiguchi was equally pleased with
the day’s racing: “Brazil delivered some extremely hot racing to go
with the hot temperatures,” he said. “The amount of overtaking and
close racing to be had in both of today’s races shows how much grip the
ADVAN tyres provided.
“Drivers throughout the field felt
confident enough to push on a very hot track, which is exactly what we
hope for as a manufacturer of racing tyres.”
Drivers Championship Standings (top 8):
1 Jörg Müller BMW 320si 16
2 Augusto Farfus Jr BMW 320si 16
3 Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 16
4 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT León 9
5 Yvan Muller SEAT León 6
6 Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si 5
7 Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 4
8 Tom Coronel SEAT León 4
Manufacturers Championship Standings:
1 BMW BMW 320si 18
2 SEAT Sport SEAT León 10
3 Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 5
4 Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo 156 0
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