2012 FIA WTCC Race of Austria

2012 Race of Austria
Race details
	Round 6 of 12 in the 2012 World Touring Car Championship at Salzburgring in Salzburg, Austria.
Date	May 20, 2012
Location	Salzburg, Austria
Course	Salzburgring; 4.225 kilometres (2.625 mi)
Race One
Laps
Laps	12
Pole position
Driver
Time
Podium
First
Second
Third
Fastest Lap
Driver
Time
Race Two
Laps
Laps	12
Podium
First
Second
Third
Fastest Lap
Driver
Time

The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Austria was the sixth round of the

2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the inaugural running of the FIA WTCC Race of Austria. It was held on May 20, 2012 at the Salzburgring, east of Salzburg in Austria. The first race was won by Robert Huff for Chevrolet and the second race was won by Stefano D'Aste for Wiechers-Sport

.

Background

Yvan Muller came into the event leading the championship 23 points clear of Alain Menu, who was in turn seven points ahead of Robert Huff. Gabriele Tarquini was the leading non-Chevrolet driver, 53 points behind Huff in the standings. Pepe Oriola was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Report

Free Practice

Alain Menu led a Chevrolet 1-2-3 in the opening practice session, with Tom Coronel for ROAL Motorsport fourth quickest.^[1]

Menu set the pace once again in the second practice session, with Muller and Huff once again making it a 1-2-3 for Chevrolet.

bamboo-engineering.^[2]

Qualifying

Huff took pole position ahead of his Chevrolet teammates.

Aleksei Dudukalo would take pole position for the reversed grid race.^[3] Chilton received a five-place grid penalty for his collision with Engstler.^[4]

Warm-Up

Four Chevrolets finished morning warm-up at the top of the times, with Muller setting a time faster than Huff's pole position time. Muller finished the session on top ahead of Menu, Huff and MacDowall.[5]

Race One

At a circuit where slipstreaming is important, Muller trailed Huff for the whole race to benefit from the tow. Further back, Special Tuning Racing's Darryl O'Young and Engstler Motorsport's Charles Ng tangled, with O'Young requiring attention at the circuit medical centre which would render him unable to start the second race. Huff took his 20th WTCC win ahead of Muller and Menu, Tarquini finished as best of the rest in fourth. MacDowall was the winning independent.^[6]

Race Two

Dudukalo started on pole position for a race which would be known for its multiple tyre issues. Both Dudukalo and his

Lukoil Racing Team teammate Tarquini had to pit for fresh rubber due to punctures and Tiago Monteiro retired following a left-front puncture. After this, the three Chevrolets led until Menu went into the gravel on lap eight with a puncture. Shortly after, race one independent winner MacDowall also had a puncture and stopped in the gravel next to Menu's stranded car. The remaining Chevrolets of Muller and Huff comfortably led the BMW pair of Coronel and D'Aste until the final lap when Muller went off at turn 10 with a puncture and Huff suffered a puncture at the final corner. Coronel tried to go up the inside of Huff without success, allowing D'Aste to overtake the pair of them and take the win. Huff held off Coronel despite his puncture to take second.^[7]

Results

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2	Points
1	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:27.683	1:26.791	5
2	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:27.346	1:26.933	4
3	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		1:27.501	1:26.961	3
4	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		1:28.162	1:27.490	2
5	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:27.813	1:27.573	1
6	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		1:28.406	1:27.808
7	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:28.392	1:27.927
8	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:28.100	1:28.122
9	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		1:28.149	1:28.124
10	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:28.298	1:28.317
11	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	1:28.364	1:28.342
12	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:28.293	1:28.373
13	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:28.421
14	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:28.424
15	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:28.582
16	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	1:28.858
17	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:28.913
18	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:29.137
19	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		1:29.271
20	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	1:30.057
21	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	1:30.116

Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		14	23:26.809	1	25
2	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		14	+0.312	2	18
3	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		14	+0.739	3	15
4	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		14	+2.919	4	12
5	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		14	+3.483	6	10
6	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	14	+3.774	5	8
7	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	14	+4.741	8	6
8	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		14	+6.923	9	4
9	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+8.419	15	2
10	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		14	+8.914	13	1
11	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+9.796	17
12	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	14	+10.429	16
13	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+12.813	14
14	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+13.178	18
15	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+13.983	20
16	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		14	+16.756	21
17	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	14	+18.390	12
18	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	14	+1 Lap	19
19	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	14	+3 Laps	10
Ret	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	5	Collision	7
Ret	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	4	Collision	11

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	26	Stefano D'Aste	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	17:58.529	4	25
2	2	Robert Huff	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+0.377	10	18
3	15	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC		12	+0.494	2	15
4	74	Pepe Oriola	Tuenti Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	12	+4.103	3	12
5	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+4.929	14	10
6	25	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+5.432	11	8
7	16	Alberto Cerqui	ROAL Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+5.786	13	6
8	1	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		12	+6.464	9	4
9	6	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+6.474	16	2
10	14	James Nash	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		12	+9.056	12	1
11	23	Tom Chilton	Team Aon	Ford Focus S2000 TC		12	+12.980	18
12	27	Gábor Wéber	Zengő Motorsport	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+15.659	19
13	7	Charles Ng	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320 TC	Y	12	+37.399	17
14	4	Aleksei Dudukalo	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	11	+1 Lap	1
15	12	Pasquale Di Sabatino	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	11	+1 Lap	15
16	3	Gabriele Tarquini	Lukoil Racing	SEAT León WTCC		11	+1 Lap	7
Ret	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T		7	Puncture	8
Ret	11	Alex MacDowall	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T	Y	7	Puncture	6
Ret	18	Tiago Monteiro	Tuenti Racing	SR León 1.6T		7	Puncture	5
DNS	20	Darryl O'Young	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León WTCC	Y	0	Injury
DNS	22	Tom Boardman	Special Tuning Racing	SEAT León TDi	Y	0	Transmission

Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings

	Pos	Driver	Points
	1	Yvan Muller	206
1	2	Robert Huff	198
1	3	Alain Menu	175
1	4	Tom Coronel	116
1	5	Gabriele Tarquini	111

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Pepe Oriola	90
2	Norbert Michelisz	80
3	Stefano D'Aste	69
4	Franz Engstler	50
5	Mehdi Bennani	41

Manufacturers' Championship standings

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	Chevrolet	495
2	BMW Customer Racing Teams	335
3	SEAT Racing Technology	316

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

^ Menu heads Muller and Huff as Chevrolet dominates WTCC first practice in Austria, Autosport.com.
^ Alain Menu quickest again in World Touring Car practice two at the Salzburgring, Autosport.com.
^ Rob Huff takes first pole of the year at Salzburgring, TouringCarTimes.
^ Tom Chilton dropped five spots for contact with Engstler, TouringCarTimes.
^ Muller sets new lap record in Salzburg warm up, TouringCarTimes.
^ Huff soaks up constant pressure from Muller to take 20th WTCC win in Austria, Autosport.com.
^ Stefano D'Aste takes first World Touring Car win amid puncture mayhem at the Salzburgring, Autosport.com.

External links

World Touring Car Championship
Previous race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary	2012 World Touring Car Championship season	Next race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal
Previous race: none	FIA WTCC Race of Austria	Next race: 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Austria

[1] Menu heads Muller and Huff as Chevrolet dominates WTCC first practice in Austria, Autosport.com.

[2] Alain Menu quickest again in World Touring Car practice two at the Salzburgring, Autosport.com.

[3] Rob Huff takes first pole of the year at Salzburgring, TouringCarTimes.

[4] Tom Chilton dropped five spots for contact with Engstler, TouringCarTimes.

[5] Muller sets new lap record in Salzburg warm up, TouringCarTimes.

[6] Huff soaks up constant pressure from Muller to take 20th WTCC win in Austria, Autosport.com.

[7] Stefano D'Aste takes first World Touring Car win amid puncture mayhem at the Salzburgring, Autosport.com.

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