WTCC Finale - Qualifying results
Discussion
Here are the qualifying results below. Click the spoiler hyperlink.
The BMW Team UK driver, who currently trails Augusto Farfus by a single point going into the two races on Sunday, got his tactics spot on in qualifying as he headed out on track early in his BMW 320si and immediately posted the fastest time of the meeting so far – giving him the perfect banker lap when the red flags came out following an off for Nicola Larini at the final turn. When the action resumed, Priaulx repeated the feat to bring his best time down to 2mins 33.318secs – over a second and half quicker than anyone else – before the action was once again interrupted with James Thompson put his SEAT into the wall. With rain then starting to fall, no-one was able to get close to the Briton's time, giving him the perfect starting position for the opening race on Sunday.
However, with eight other drivers still able to secure the championship crown, Priaulx refused get carried away after the session and admitted that anything could still happen once the first race gets underway.
"I respect my competitors too much to think the title is mine and I know there is a lot left of the job to do," he said. "Anything can happen at this track as we saw today. I absolutely love it here but know that the slightest mistake can be very costly. I just have to focus on the next couple of days and keep calm.
"My team came here for the first time last year and put me on pole, and have done the same again using the same tactics. I was able to do a good time straight away and this will pay dividends for the race as it will give me a good pace for the opening laps. A good start in race one and some precious points in the bag will be important, especially when the top eight are reversed on the grid for race two.
"Someone said they reckoned there were about four million possibilities for what could happen in the championship fight, and the good thing is there are a few less now!"
Ps.
Spoiler
Andy Priaulx is refusing to get complacent about his chances of retaining the World Touring Car Championship title despite securing pole position for the final rounds of the season in Macau.The BMW Team UK driver, who currently trails Augusto Farfus by a single point going into the two races on Sunday, got his tactics spot on in qualifying as he headed out on track early in his BMW 320si and immediately posted the fastest time of the meeting so far – giving him the perfect banker lap when the red flags came out following an off for Nicola Larini at the final turn. When the action resumed, Priaulx repeated the feat to bring his best time down to 2mins 33.318secs – over a second and half quicker than anyone else – before the action was once again interrupted with James Thompson put his SEAT into the wall. With rain then starting to fall, no-one was able to get close to the Briton's time, giving him the perfect starting position for the opening race on Sunday.
However, with eight other drivers still able to secure the championship crown, Priaulx refused get carried away after the session and admitted that anything could still happen once the first race gets underway.
"I respect my competitors too much to think the title is mine and I know there is a lot left of the job to do," he said. "Anything can happen at this track as we saw today. I absolutely love it here but know that the slightest mistake can be very costly. I just have to focus on the next couple of days and keep calm.
"My team came here for the first time last year and put me on pole, and have done the same again using the same tactics. I was able to do a good time straight away and this will pay dividends for the race as it will give me a good pace for the opening laps. A good start in race one and some precious points in the bag will be important, especially when the top eight are reversed on the grid for race two.
"Someone said they reckoned there were about four million possibilities for what could happen in the championship fight, and the good thing is there are a few less now!"
Ps.
Spoiler
Go Andy, make it 3 titles in a rowSKR said:
Pity he never got a crack at F1 as I get the impression he is now a little frustrated at having no where to move upto.
If you believe the hype coming out of the TOCA package they reckon the BTCC is better...
He's in te World Touring Car Championship, there isn't anywhere else to go, it's the top of the tree in terms of tin-top titles. The only other place for him to go would be DTM. But I'm not sure the kudos would be quite as big, title wise I mean.
racefan_uk said:
SKR said:
Pity he never got a crack at F1 as I get the impression he is now a little frustrated at having no where to move upto.
He's in te World Touring Car Championship, there isn't anywhere else to go, it's the top of the tree in terms of tin-top titles. The only other place for him to go would be DTM. But I'm not sure the kudos would be quite as big, title wise I mean.
I have the impression that DTM is just as prestigious as WTCC. I could be wrong though.
Maybe he could move into sports prototype racing?
SamHH said:
Is the F3 meeting this weekend also? Is that televised?
F3 Qualification race results here - www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/55677
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