THREE MEN IN ONE
POINT
SEAT
Sport team-mates Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini arrive in Puebla as
co-leaders of the Drivers' Championship after they won one race apiece in the
season's opening meeting at Curitiba, Brazil.
"After only one event it is
difficult to say that any team is the favourite to win the championship. We have
exactly the same chances as BMW," said
Muller.
And Tarquini agreed: "SEAT
won in Brazil but we didn't dominate the races. The BMW was the fastest car.
What we did better than the rest was to exploit our car's performance in both
the qualifying and the races."
Reigning World Champion Andy Priaulx
is currently lying third, only one point behind. "In our last visit here in 2006 we all had to cope with difficult
conditions as the track was breaking up. However, I did prove you must never
give up as I battled through to seventh position in race two from
18th on the grid, despite a full 80 kilos of ballast. I am confident
the organisers have done their best to improve all the
facilities," said the BMW UK man.
DRIVERS MEET FANS IN PUEBLA
The FIA WTCC drivers took part this
afternoon in a promotional event that officially launched the championship's
second race meeting to be held this weekend in Puebla,
Mexico.
The
event was organised with the support of Puebla's Municipal Institute for
Sports.
Onboard pick-up trucks, the drivers paraded through the city's main
streets - including the elegant Avenida Juárez - until they reached the
Zócalo, Puebla's central square,
where Rydell's SEAT, Larini's Chevrolet and Romanov's BMW were exhibited in
front of the Cathedral.
At the Zócalo, the
drivers attended a one-hour autograph session that attracted a large crowd.
IN MEMORY OF DAVID LESLIE
Former Touring Car ace and Eurosport
commentator David Leslie perished last Sunday at the age of 54 in a private
plane crash in Farnborough, Kent. Leslie was killed along with the two pilots
and two other passengers, one of them was motorsport team boss Richard
Lloyd.
During
his long racing career Leslie was five times Scottish
karting champion before winning the British Formula
Ford title in 1978. He had spells in Formula Three, Sportscars and
Thunder Saloons before establishing himself as a race winner in the
British Touring Car Championship at the wheel of Vauxhall, Honda
and Nissan cars, some of them prepared by Chevrolet WTCC team boss Ray
Mallock.
Later
he brought his expertise and enthusiasm to Eurosport and
for nearly ten years provided racing analysis co-commentating the FIA European
and World Touring Car Championships together with Martin Haven.
THOMPSON TO RACE IN DENMARK
James Thompson will drive for Hartmann Honda Racing in the Danish Touring Car
Championship, when he will not be racing for N.technology in the FIA
WTCC.
The team
announced that - with the support of Honda Denmark - they have signed an
agreement with Honda Motor Europe and their technical partners JAS Motorsport to
field two Honda Accord Euro R cars fitted with the newest engine and suspension
specifications.
With the co-operation of N-technology, Hartmann Honda
Racing will run one car for James Thompson alongside that of their regular
driver Jens Reno Møller.
"I will not want to make up the
numbers in Denmark," James Thompson said. "The
guys at Hartmann are very enthusiastic, and I see no reason why we cannot win
races or be on the podium consistently."
EUROSPORT
LIVE COVERAGE FROM PUEBLA
Saturday, 5th: Qualifying - LIVE
Eurosport 2, 23.00/23.45
Sunday,
6th:
Warm up - LIVE Eurosport 2,
16.00/16.30
Race 1 -
LIVE Eurosport International,
19.00/20.00
Race 2 -
LIVE Eurosport International,
22.00/23.00
Times are CET (Central
European Time)
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