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N.Technology Alfa Romeo’s James Thompson has made up two FIA World Touring Car
Championship positions after an accomplished drive saw him finish second in today’s first race at Brands Hatch.
Thompson
had to
defend his second place for the first half of the 16-lap race as Jordi
Gené pushed hard from third. In the closing stages, however, the
Spaniard
faded leaving Thompson free to challenge Alain Menu for the win.
Despite
creating
some promising opportunities, Thompson had to settle for second,
leap-frogging Gabriele Tarquini and Nicola Larini to sit level on
points with
Menu.
Thompson’s
team-mate Olivier Tielemans held his own in the rolling start to make up six places and run in 15th. After a brief safety car period,
however, the Dutchman lost some pace and finished 20th.
James Thompson, car
number 15
“I’ve
been on the podium in all the last three race meetings and we’re
dragging ourselves back
into a position we never dreamed of being in the championship. It’s
very romantic to think we could go to the last round in Macau and have
a
chance to feature in the championship.
“Today’s
second race is probably going to be a bit more of a shake up I would
have thought. It should
be interesting! The problem is the track is so fast and you can very
rarely overtake into fast corners. It’s one of those things and
we’ve got to try and work around it this afternoon.”
Olivier
Tielemans, car number 16
“I couldn’t keep the car on the track. I got up to 15th from the start but after the
re-start I couldn’t push as much as I wanted to. Hopefully we can fix it for the second race.”
FIA WTCC Brands Hatch race one – Provisional
result
1. Alain Menu (SUI), Chevrolet
2. James
Thompson (GBR), N.Technology
3. Colin Turkington (GBR), Team RAC
4. Yvan Muller (FRA), SEAT Sport
5. Jordi Gené (ESP), SEAT Sport
6. Rob Huff (GBR),
Chevrolet
7. Andy Priaulx
(GBR), BMW UK
8. Pierre-Yves
Corthals (BEL), Exagon Engineering
20. Olivier
Tielemans (NED), N.Technology
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