Wiechers-Sport had a challenging weekend during the Brazilian round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship, one which Team Manager Dominik Greiner describes as a low for the team.
“In motor racing there are ups and downs. This weekend in Curitiba, we unfortunately had a low,” explained Greiner.
“We realized our mistake, unfortunately too late, but they could fix it for the race. Stefano was able to score two valuable points at the weekend in Brazil and we are still 3rd in the Independents’ Trophy. Now we go into the summer break and look forward to the first WTCC race in the United States in September that we will hopefully end on a high! ”
The weekend started with a 30 minute test session for the teams’ and drivers’ to familiarise themselves with the circuit and to shake down the cars after their trip by sea to Brazil.
At the end of the session, Stefano d’Aste finished third fastest in the Yokohama Independents, but the two practice sessions Saturday saw the Italian struggle and he could only finish 11th and 18th fastest.
Worst was to come in Qualifying as d’Aste made two mistakes to finish 21st fastest in the first part of qualifying, a result which meant he would start last for both races.
Round 15 saw the Salzburgring race winner make up some positions during the early laps before colliding with another driver and he ended up at the back of the field. He finished 17th overall and outside of the points in both the outright drivers’ Championship as well as the Yokohama Independents’ trophy.
Starting from the back again in race 2, d’Aste was able to work his way up the order to finish 13th overall and pick up two points in the Yokohama Independents trophy.
“It was a really very tough weekend for us,” said the Italian, who occupies third position in the Yokohama Independents’ standings.
“Unfortunately, the test was on Friday on the still-dirty track. After our good 8th place on Friday, we thought that we had a great setup. Unfortunately, this is not so and accordingly in qualifying I could not set the times.
“Warm Up and we have turned the set up of my BMW 320TC on its head. A risky step, but as demonstrated in the race, it was a good and important step as my speed was very good in both races.
“On the one hand, I am very sad because it would be good this weekend if a lot more had been there for us. On the other hand, I’m glad that we have detected the error and could correct it. Now I go into the summer break and look forward to our debut in the USA! “