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Colin
Turkington’s
introduction to the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) today at
Brands Hatch was also the Team RAC driver’s first outing on Yokohama
ADVAN tyres and the new rubber seemed to suit him.
The
WTCC rookie was more
than a tenth quicker in the first sector of Brands Hatch's longer Grand
Prix circuit today compared to his time in the same sector last month
in the
British Touring Car Championship, which used the shorter Indy circuit.
He puts the improvement down to the tyres.
“I
thought it would make a
difference,” said Turkington, who qualified third in his WTCC debut
today. “We tested for the BTCC at Pembrey at the beginning of the
season and Chevrolet was there running about half-a-second quicker than
us. I could hear they were on the same throttle, so it had to be the
tyres.
After my driving today, it does seem to be faster.”
Today
was also the first time the
Northern Irish driver had used tyre warmers. “In BTCC I have to spend
three laps bringing the tyre up to temperature, about 70-80
degrees,” said Turkington, 25. “With the tyre warmers you go out with
the tyres at the right temperature so you do your fast time on
lap one instead of lap four.”
Yokohama’s
Technical Consultant, Ian Beveridge, was at a Team RAC test at
Snetterton last month, where engineers got to grips
with the ADVANs. “They looked at cambers, springs and the roll bars and
came to a slightly different set-up to the one they have with Dunlop in
the BTCC,” said Beveridge. “Just to get a feel for the different
characteristics of the tyres.
“Our
tyre has to cover a wider
range of conditions worldwide than the Dunlop tyres so, for example,
when the BTCC goes to Thruxton they have to produce a special tyre to
cope with
that condition. We’re not allowed to do that.
“We
have to produce a tyre that
copes with everything so from that point of view we are a little bit
more limited in our aggressiveness when developing the tyres. Having
said that,
it was still a little bit quicker!”
Turkington’s S1 qualifying for
WTCC round 17: 29.429
Turkington’s S1 qualifying for
BTCC round 22: 29.542
FIA World Touring Car
Championship – Brands Hatch
Qualifying
Results
1 Alain MENU (SUI),
Chevrolet Lacetti, 1:33.018
2 James THOMPSON (GBR), Alfa Romeo
156,1:33.032
3 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR), BMW 320si, 1:33.082
4 Tiago MONTEIRO (POR), SEAT Leon, 1:33.202
5 Yvan MULLER (FRA), SEAT Leon TDI, 1:33.255
6 Pierre-Yves CORTHALS (BEL), SEAT Leon,
1:33.289
7 Jorg MULLER (GER), BMW 320si, 1:33.297
8 Jordi GENE (ESP), SEAT Leon TDI, 1:33.354
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