[wtcc] BEST EVER QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE FOR CHEVROLET

[Efratech]

BEST EVER QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE FOR CHEVROLET

But Yellow Flags And Engine Changes Drop Cars To Back Of Grid

BRNO, 2 September 2006 – The Chevrolet WTCC team managed its best ever qualifying performance in Brno, today, when Rob Huff set the fourth fastest time of the session, just 0.157 seconds from pole position. Team mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini confirmed Chevrolet’s improving form by qualifying within 0.7 seconds of the pole position time. No less than sixteen cars qualified within one second on the WTCC’s first visit to the long and fast Brno race track.

But because both Huff and Larini set their fastest lap times when yellow flags were waved, their best laps were disallowed. Additionally, both drivers had to use new engines (Rob after his Mexico accident and Nicola after yesterday’s engine failure) dropping them an additional ten places, thus effectively starting from the last row of the grid.

“It is a shame, really,” Chevrolet Europe’s Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève said, “especially since Rob’s engine was changed as a result of the engine literally breaking under the impact of his accident in Mexico, as opposed to breaking as a result of a technical failure.”

However, before the Stewards announced their decisions, Rob Huff was in a very good. “That was a fantastic lap,” he said. “I was out there, completely on my own, with nobody in front of me kicking dust and dirt onto the track. That’s why I went out before most of the others did, and it worked out just brilliantly. On my first set of tyres I had some bizarre vibrations immediately on the out-lap, so I came back in and switched tyres. The second set was okay but I got stuck behind Jimmy (Thompson), but he was too slow so I had to pass him and lost some time there. The third attempt was the one! This lap also shows just how good the team is, considering they had about a week to build a completely new car and turn it into the most competitive Chevrolet Lacetti yet.”

Despite the penalty setback, Team Manager, Mark Busfield was pleased with the pure performance of the cars: “This is a great improvement over our results from the last two races. Here we virtually had three cars in the top ten, all within just a few tenths of the pole time. I would say that’s pretty brilliant, especially on a fast and undulating track like this one, which is not normally our favourite.”

The privateer Lacettis of the Maurer Motorsport team fared less well, with Rainer Bastuck qualifying in 25th and Vincent Radermecker sitting out the qualifying session after two engine failures.

PUEBLA QUALIFYING TIMES

1. G Tarquini (SEAT) 2m12s286
2. J Müller (BMW) + 0s045
3. A Zanardi (BMW) + 0s067
4. R Huff (Chevrolet) + 0s147
5. J Gené (SEAT) + 0s156
10. A Menu (Chevrolet) + 0s526
11. N Larini (Chevrolet) + 0s731
26. R Bastuck (Chevrolet) + 3s635
V Radermecker (Chevrolet) No time