SEAT has achieved a brilliant result in both of the WTCC races staged in Valencia with two podium finishes and five scoring finishes. Gabriele Tarquini and Jordi Gené were second and third in the first race, whilst Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell achieved places among the top eight, thus allowing SEAT to strengthen their leadership both in the drivers’ and constructors’ championship standings.
Race 1
An excellent start allowed Jordi Gené taking the lead of the first race ahead of Tarquini and Muller, meaning three SEAT León TDI on top spots. However, none of them was able to keep up with Robert Huff, who had a much lighter car and no problems to climb up positions and to take over the lead. Gabriele Tarquini made good use of Huff’s manoeuvre to put himself on second, but couldn’t stop the Briton from opening a big gap.
From that moment, the SEAT drivers fought hard to keep their positions and to maintain a very important result to maintain the aim of scoring points for the championship. Gené and Muller had a hard race standing the attacks of Jorg Müller (BMW) and Nicola Larini (Chevrolet), but they both achieved their objectives.
Rickard Rydell was the victim of an off-track by Farfus which set him back several positions. He started to remount and made it to place 10, ahead of Tiago Monteiro and behind Tom Coronel, who managed once again to be among the top ten with his SEAT León WTCC. José Manuel Pérez Aicart was 14th in his first race in the WTCC.
Race 2
With the top eight positions in reverse order, BMW and Chevrolet were those who fought for the victory. Meanwhile, the SEAT drivers defended their options to finish among the scorers, with Muller and Gené in fifth and second position. However, an incident with Farfus set Muller back, while Tarquini was able to move up to fifth ahead of Gené, Rydell and the French driver.
Tiago Monteiro was the only one not able to cross the finish line after a hit that forced him to retire, and despite Tarquini opening a gap to his make-mates, he was not able to close the gap to the front drivers finishing the race in fifth place and lapping the last part of the race in formation ahead of his mates to finally score important points for the championship.
Statements
Gabriele Tarquini (SEAT León TDI no. 11), 2nd/5th: “Positive day for us. We’ve scored points in both races achieving a podium finish. I was only sorry for not being able to win at home, but you can’t win always. Our cars were very heavy and our rivals were driving much lighter. There was nothing more we could do”.
Jordi Gené (SEAT León TDI no. 9), 3rd/6th: “It’s been a positive weekend. I wanted to get on the podium in Valencia and I made it. I will also be able to take off some ballast for the next race, even if it’s only symbolic. I’m getting closer to my team-mates in the fight for the championship and SEAT has scored more points than anyone else. There’s nothing else I could ask for”.
Yvan Muller: (SEAT León TDI no. 12), 4th/8th: “I don’t know what to say. It’s been a bad day because I haven’t been able to make use of the advantage of starting from pole”.
Rickard Rydell (SEAT León TDI no.), 10th/7th: “It’s been a good weekend for SEAT, scoring additional points for the constructors’ world championship, but I’m disappointed with my performance since I’ve only be able to score two points. I’ve started from tenth in both races and to tell you the truth, I couldn’t do better than seventh in the second”.
Tiago Monteiro (SEAT León TDI no. 18), 11th/DNF: “It’s been frustrating. We knew that it would be a difficult weekend but we could not imagine that we would have so many problems. The qualifying went bad and we didn’t have any chances during the race because of the incidents. The positive side is that we’ll be able to take off ballast, not much, but it’ll be good for the next race in a circuit I like a lot”.
Jaime Puig, SEAT Sport Director: “It’s been a positive weekend for SEAT. This is the way to assess it because we’ve achieved two podium finishes despite carrying a lot of ballast, we have increased our advantage in the constructors’ world championship and we keep the leadership in the drivers’ overall standings”.
Race 1
1. R. Huff (Chevrolet)
2. G.Tarquini (SEAT León TDI), + 5”376
3. J.Gené (SEAT León TDI), + 10”095
4. Y.Muller (SEAT León TDI), + 10”491
5. J.Müller (BMW), + 10”952
6º N.Larini (Chevrolet), + 11”679
9º T.Coronel (SEAT León WTCC), + 19”643
10º R.Rydell (SEAT León TDI), + 21”075
11º T.Monteiro (SEAT León TDI), + 22”016
14º J.M.Pérez Aicart (SEAT León WTCC), + 29”021
Ab. P.Y. Corthals (SEAT León WTCC)
Race 2
1. A.Menu (Chevrolet)
2. R.Huff (Chevrolet), + 2”441
3. A.Priaulx (BMW), + 3”952
4. J.Müller (BMW), + 5”403
5. G.Tarquini (SEAT León TDI), +16”332
6. J.Gené (SEAT León TDI), + 19”171
7. R.Rydell (SEAT León TDI), + 19”662
8. Y.Muller (SEAT León TDI), + 19”662
13º P.Y.Corthals (SEAT León WTCC)
14º J.M.Pérez Aicart (SEAT León WTCC)
Ab. T.Monteiro (SEAT León TDI)
Overall standings
Drivers
1. G.Tarquini (SEAT), 36 p.
2. Y.Muller (SEAT) 28 p.
3. R.Rydell (SEAT), 28 p.
4. J.Gené (SEAT), 24 p.
5. A.Priaulx (BMW), 22 p.
9.T.Monteiro (SEAT), 14
Constructors
1. SEAT, 92 p.
2.Chevrolet, 60 p.
3. BMW, 59 p.
4. Honda, 6 p.
Next race: Urban racetrack in Pau (France) May 131 and June 1
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