WTCC Austria qualifying madness
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Anyone who watched online today will have seen what went on in Q2 with all the cars in which they all (led by Tom Chilton) crept around the lap to get a flying lap. With all the drivers wanting to be behind Chilton in order to benefit from the slipstream so none of them passed and the cars all moved around the circuit in one group. Chilton who was second at the time was going around slow enough that he wouldn’t cross the line before the flag dropped, thus preserving his position and that of teammate Yvan Muller.
After the session 14 drivers were pulled in to see the stewards (all those in Q2 plus Darryl O’Young and Mikhail Kozlovskiy). No further action was taken against Nash and Kozlovskiy while the other drivers received various grid penalties for race one and fines. In total some €38,000 in fines were collected this evening with the majority of penalties seemingly being as a result of driving slowly on the racing line and blocking.
The final grid positions for race one are undecided, all that is clear is that Nykjaer starts on pole position with James Nash second. The stewards haven’t decided which order to apply the grid drops in but if my guess is correct this is how the top twelve on the grid now looks?
1. Michel Nykjaer
2. James Nash
3. Mehdi Bennani
4. Mikhail Kozlovskiy
5. Fredy Barth
6. Franz Engstler
7. Marc Basseng
8. James Thompson
9. Charles Ng
10. Rene Munnich
11. Fernando Monje
12. Alex MacDowallhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLkW2_ALbV0
UPDATE: On top of this, all the Honda cars have been sent to the back of the grid for running illegal rear wings.
My guess at some point this weekend we’ll get a new WTCC winner, qualifying has certainly created enough opportunities for it.
Grid for race one now confirmed, the top twelve are as I predicted above, then it’s as follows.
13. Yvan Muller
14. Robert Huff
15. Tom Chilton
16. Stefano D’Aste
17. Pepe Oriola
18. Darryl O’Young
19. Tom Coronel
20. Hugo Valente
21. Gabriele Tarquini
22. Tiago Monteiro
23. Norbert MicheliszRace two is as the original qualifying times with the top ten reversed unless any cars have to pulled out of parc ferme after race one. James Nash starts on the front row for both races!
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