The 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship reaches its half way point this weekend as rounds eleven and twelve are played out around the 4.225km Salzburgring circuit in Austria.
The circuit makes it WTCC bow this weekend but the circuit has played host to the European Touring Car Cup, with Pepe Oriola having competed at the circuit in the 2011 event.
For the majority of the 21 car field, it marks the second new circuit of the season and thus everyone will start on an even footing.
Chevrolet will look to continue their good form in Austria. Having secured eight victories from ten races to date in 2012, the reigning Champions are heading both the drivers’ and Manufacturers’ standings.
Yvan Muller currently leads the Championship having taken five of the eight Chevrolet victories to date and he secured victory in Hungary from Pole Position. Muller had become the first driver to win the opening three WTCC races earlier in the season.
Trying to keep the pressure up is Swiss team-mate Alain Menu. A double podium finish in Hungary allowed Menu to close the gap to Muller and he arrives in Austria 23 points behind the Frenchman. Menu has secured two victories in the 2012 campaign, having been the first driver to defeat Muller.
Rob Huff in the third Chevrolet is 30 points behind Muller despite a reasonable start to the campaign. At the same stage last season, Huff had secured five victories and was clear at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. This season, he has a single victory – secured in Slovakia – while he also has picked up a DNF.
Having been the series runner up in 2011, Huff had high hopes that 2012 would be his season and he needs to claw back some points on Muller if he is to stay in contention for the crown.
Bamboo engineering will head to Austria looking to continue the form which led them to a brace of points scoring finishes in the Yokohama Independents’ trophy. Alex MacDowall has shown that he and the team have the pace during the races but need to unlock that little bit more for qualifying.
Team-mate Pasquale Di Sabatino continues to learn the series having switched from Auto GP and despite not scoring a top ten race finish, he is still yet to have a retirement – only three other drivers’ have finished all ten races. A top ten finish isn’t far off for the Italian driver.
BMW secured their first victory of the season last time out in Hungary as local hero Norbert Michelisz secured the race two victory. For Michelisz, it was his second career victory – his first came in Macau 2010 – and at the end, he was speechless and overwhelmed.
His win means that he arrives in Austria inside the overall top six in the drivers’ Championship and seven points off the lead of the Yokohama Independents’.
Zengo Motorsport team-mate Gabor Weber didn’t have such a great weekend at home as he was given a drive through penalty for an incident in race two, having finished tenth overall in the first race.
Proteam Motorsport also had their best weekend of the season in Hungary. Having been reduced to a one car operation after Isaac Tutumlu left the team, Mehdi Bennani became the sole focus and he repaid the team with his career best results in the WTCC.
Having qualified fifth for the opening race, he secured a top four finish and top Yokohama Independent driver before securing an outright podium finish in the second race as he finished third overall.
Another strong showing came from Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC. Having started right at the back after a technical infringement in qualifying, the Dutchman worked his way into the top six during round nine, but he was unable to replicate that performance in the second race of the day.
Coronel finds himself joint fourth in the drivers’ Championship but is yet to take a victory in 2012. He has shown that he has the speed in the car to win a race this season, while team-mate Alberto Cerqui continues to learn the WTCC but the youngster has shown glimpses of potential to date.
Stefano D’Aste and the Wiechers-Sport team had a tough weekend in Hungary and have slipped to third in the Yokohama Independents’ Championship. D’Aste is another driver who has shown the speed and potential to be a thorn in the side of those drivers’ who aren’t competing for the Yokohama Independents’ trophy.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler also had a testing weekend in Hungary with both drivers retiring from one of the races. Franz Engstler had started the second race from Pole Position but slid down the order due to damage from the previous race and could only secure a ninth place finish.
Team-mate Charles Kaki Ng is still on a learning curve in his first full WTCC campaign and is yet to break into the outright top ten, he has scored points in the Yokohama Independents’ trophy.
Leading the SEAT charge heading to Austria is Gabriele Tarquini. The 2009 Champion broke the stranglehold of Chevrolet in Slovakia and finds himself fourth overall in the Championship, and looking to add to his victory count this weekend. Tarquini is one of very few drivers with knowledge of the Austrian circuit.
Tarquini’s team-mate in the Lukoil Racing Team squad is Alexey Dudukalo and the Russian driver has shown glimpses of speed during the season but he has seen his progress interrupted with bad luck and incidents. His only top ten race finish to date in 2012 is a second place finish in Slovakia.
Top SEAT performer in Austria was SEAT Tuenti Racing Team driver Tiago Monteiro. The Portuguese driver is still running the older Lehmann built engine and even with the handicap, he secured a brace of top five results to reward the team for all of their hard work. Monteiro can’t be discounted for another strong result and will get the maximum out of the package he has until he gets the new 1.6litre turbocharged petrol engine.
Team-mate to Monteiro at SEAT Tuenti Racing Team is Oriola and he narrowly missed out on a maiden podium finish in Hungary. Having been running second, the young Spaniard secured fourth place in the second race. This result equalled his best result to date and a win isn’t far away.
Oriola has prior experience of the circuit, having raced a SunRed SEAT Leon TDi in the 2011 FIA European Touring Car Cup where he finished second overall behind Fabrizio Giovanardi. Oriola secured the race two honours in the wet last year.
Special Tuning Racing is looking for a change of luck in Austria after the Hungaroring event didn’t go according to plan. Darryl O’Young was taken out in the first race and was unable to convert his second row start in the second race into a strong finish due to the race one contact while team-mate Tom Boardman saw his weekend cut short after the damage sustained in the first race ruled him out of the second race. Boardman is the only SEAT entrant to run the TDi engine still but is hopeful of securing the 1.6litre petrol engine for the Portuguese event.
Team Aon and their drivers, James Nash and Tom Chilton will be pleased to be at a circuit where they are on a level playing field and will hope to repeat their Slovakia Ring showing. The British duo in their Ford Focus has shown that the speed and potential is there but are looking for a little bit more luck.
Nash still has the record of securing the best ever finish for a Ford in the WTCC, having brought home the #14 car sixth in Marrakech having lined up on Pole Position and he has generally been the faster driver while Chilton has had more luck on his side and has secured more points finishes compared to Nash. Chilton was the first Ford driver to secure a points finish after coming home seventh in Marrakech, the race before Nash opened his account for the season.
21 drivers will line up on the grid for the two races which mark the half way point of the season and the penultimate European race weekend of the 2012 campaign. After Austria, the field will head to Portugal before the flyaway races which end the season.
Will the circuit featuring two long straights and flowing corners, can anyone stop Chevrolet or SEAT, will Team Aon and the Ford Focus spring a surprise or will BMW have the advantage with their better tyre wear compared to their front wheel drive rivals.
Of course, will the weather have its say as the circuit is up in the Austrian mountains near to Salzburg.
All of the answers to these questions and many more will be answered this weekend and TouringCars.Net will bring full coverage from the weekend, with live coverage via the official TCN Twitter account: @Touringcarsnet
The opening free practice session gets underway at 9am Salzburg time, 8am BST with the second session starting at 11.45am Salzburg time, 10.45BST. Qualifying ahead of round eleven gets underway at 15.45 Salzburg time, 14.45 BST.
Rounds eleven and twelve will be live on Eurosport on Sunday, with the first race starting at 13.20 local time, 12.20 BST with round twelve getting underway at 14.35 local time, 13.35 BST. Both races are due to run over twelve laps.
Touring-Cars.Net Salzburgring predictions:
Pole Position: Gabriele Tarquini
Race 1: 1. Gabriele Tarquini, 2. Rob Huff, 3. Yvan Muller
Race 2 Pole Position: Darryl O’Young
Race 2: 1. Norbert Michelisz, 2. Alain Menu, 3. Stefano D’Aste