2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal
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 Round 7 of 12 in the 2013 World Touring Car Championship at Circuito da Boavista in Porto, Portugal. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 30 June, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Porto, Portugal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course | Circuito da Boavista 4.800 kilometres (2.983 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Race Two | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal will be the seventh round of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season, the seventh running of the FIA WTCC Race of Portugal and the final European round of the season. It will be held on 30 June 2013 at the Circuito da Boavista street circuit in Porto, Portugal.
Background
At the halfway point of the season, Yvan Muller is leading the drivers' championship and Michel Nykjær is leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.
The Honda Civic WTCCs dropped 30 kg when the compensation weights were revised after the previous round. The BMW 320 TCs received an extra 20 kg of ballast, making them the second heaviest cars on the grid behind the Chevrolets.[1]
Pepe Oriola switched from his SEAT León WTCC to a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T leased from RML and run by Tuenti Racing Team.[2] Hugo Valente was originally scheduled to miss the Portuguese round but rejoined Campos Racing when a third car was made spare by Oriola's switch to Chevrolet. Tom Boardman also rejoined the field having missed the Austrian and Russian rounds.[3]
Report
Free practice
ROAL Motorsport's Tom Coronel was fastest in free practice one, leading the Chevrolet pair of Muller and Oriola. The Honda trio led by Gabriele Tarquini were fourth, fifth and sixth while Robert Huff was the leading SEAT driver in seventh. Mikhail Kozlovskiy and Tom Chilton had brushes with the walls during the session while Hugo Valente crashed head–on into the barriers at turn four after missing his braking point.[4]
Muller was the quickest driver in free practice two, over five–tenths quicker than Tarquini in the Honda. The session interrupted early on when Tiago Monteiro suffered an engine problem on his Honda Civic and came to a stop at turn thirteen. Several drivers held the fastest time before Muller put in his best time a few minutes from the end of the session. Kozlovskiy spent much of the session in the pits when he damaged his rear–left wheel while Nikolay Karamyshev crashed at turn twenty at the end of the session.[5]
Qualifying
With the Circuito da Boavista being a street circuit, Q1 was extended from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and Q2 was extended from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. Alex MacDowall lost control of his Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet during Q1 and spun into one of barriers, he damaged both ends of his car but was able to drive back to the pits. Monteiro was still suffering from turbo problems which had brought his running in free practice two to an early end, he got out in Q1 but ended the session 17th. Fernando Monje had a small collision with a tyre wall which cause some minor damage to the side of his Campos Racing SEAT, Mehdi Bennani had a slow speed head on collision in the same place at the end of the session. Kozlovskiy didn't set a time with his car being stuck in the garage for the duration of qualifying due to a damaged subframe.
Q2 was interrupted by a red flag early on when Oriola crashed at turn three. James Thompson had got through to Q2 and on his only run during the session put himself fifth on the grid. Norbert Michelisz was the last driver to set a quick lap but cut a chicane meaning the lap wouldn't count, he ended up fourth on the grid as the quickest Honda. At the end of the session, Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3 with Chilton second and Nykjær third. Coronel was tenth in Q2 which would secure him pole position for race two.[6]
References
- ^ Hudson, Neil (14 June 2013). "Honda get significant weight break for Porto". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ Hudson, Neil (9 June 2013). "Pepe Oriola set to switch to Chevrolet from Portugal". Touting Car Times. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "A FIELD OF 25 CARS TO RACE IN PORTO". World Touring Car Championship. Kigema Sport Organisation. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "PRACTICE 1 - CORONEL IS FASTEST". World Touring Car Championship. Kigema Sport Organisation. 29 June 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
- ^ Hudson, Neil (29 June 2013). "Yvan Muller dominates second practice at Porto". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
- ^ Tremayne, Sam (29 June 2013). "Porto WTCC: Yvan Muller takes commanding pole". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
External links
| World Touring Car Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous race: 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Russia |
2013 World Touring Car Championship season | Next race: 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Argentina |
| Previous race: 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal |
FIA WTCC Race of Portugal | Next race: 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Portugal |