The Chevrolet team opened the turbo era in WTCC in style last week at Curitiba, having a great start to the season in which they aim to defend their world titles.
Rob Huff and Alain Menu shared race victories, while reigning champion Yvan Muller collected two valuable podium results.
The team’s guest driver, Brazilian Stock Car hero Carlos ‚Cacá‘ Bueno also shone in his home event and claimed two excellent results: third in Race 1 (his first podium finish in WTCC) and fifth in Race 2.
Huff left Brazil as the leader of the championship, closely followed by Menu and Muller.
Chevrolet Motorsport Director Eric Nève commented: "What a nice way to start the season! We can really feel proud of the entire team, the drivers and especially the engine guys, who have done a fantastic job during the winter, allowing us to live a perfect weekend in Curitiba."
The championship will resume at Zolder, Belgium, on April 24^th for rounds 3 and 4.

The Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 T cars of Huff and Muller lead Race 1 at Curitiba

GOOD START FOR BMW AND CORONEL
Tom Coronel showed the potential of the new BMW 320 TC during the second race at Curitiba. The Dutch racer seriously threatened Chevrolet’s supremacy and claimed a well deserved second place that boosted BMW Motorsport’s hopes.
"I had a great start and then Tarquini helped by keeping the Chevrolet guys behind for a few laps. But the Cruze was very strong and better on the braking than my car. It was a good start for us. I have a strong team and a good car, which makes me think it will be a nice season," Coronel said.
ROAL Motorsport team principal Roberto Ravaglia echoed: "I am more than satisfied. After finishing to assemble the car we had just the time for a shake down before shipping it to Brazil. Therefore our target was to finish in the top five/six positions. Results went beyond our expectations and confirmed the quality of the work done by BMW Motorsport."

In Brazil, Coronel’s BMW 320 TC fought for victory in the second race

VOLVO POLESTAR SATISFIED WITH OPENING RACES
After months of preparations, Polestar Racing and Robert Dahlgren kicked off Volvo’s evaluation season in the WTCC.
"We were satisfied with this opening as it met with our expectations and was encouraging for the continuation of the season," said Christian Dahl, Managing Director of Polestar Racing.
The team’s Volvo C30 ran with the 2.0L naturally-aspirated engine. A switch to the newly developed 1.6L turbo is going to take place later during the season.
"Compared to our competitors‘ new turbo engines the gap in power was especially clear at Curitiba that is located 1000 metres above the sea. Our calculations showed it was about nine tenths per lap. But keeping in mind how close we were to the top of the field, it shows that our development work with the chassis during the winter has paid off," said Dahl.
Dahlgren beat the 2010 pole position time in Q1 and missed the qualification for Q2 by just 0.4 seconds. In spite of a clutch problem he finished both races in 12^th and 13^th respectively.

Dahlgren and his Polestar Volvo C30 started Volvo’s evaluation season

POULSEN AND VILLA WIN YOKOHAMA TROPHY
Competitors of the Yokohama Trophy offered exciting battles at Curitiba, with Kristian Poulsen and Javier Villa claiming one victory apiece.
The Dane finished the first race in a brilliant fifth position, losing fourth to Tom Coronel only by inches.
"We had a great fight and lot of fun. It was a shame that in the end I was overdriving and gave him the opportunity to pass me. BMW has developed a very good car and I’m sure this will help me to be competive over the whole season," Poulsen commented.
In the second race Poulsen dropped down in a collision with fellow contryman Michel Nykjær and this handed victory to young Spaniard Javier Villa.
"It was a very good result, considering that we did not have the possibility to test before and that on Friday the team was too busy to finish my, which forced me to miss the testing. Despite all this we improved very quickly and winning the second race was a great reward to our efforts. I think we can have a very good season," said Villa.

Nykjær, Poulsen and Engstler filled the podium for Yokohama Trophy’s Race 1

WTCC TEEN-AGER SHOWS OFF HIS POTENTIAL
Pepe Oriola, the 16-year old Spaniard who joined WTCC with SUNRED Engineering showed off a great potential on his maiden races at Curitiba.
Oriola and his SEAT León TDi proved competitive from Saturday qualifying, when they missed the cut for Q2 by a mere 0.164 seconds.
On Sunday Oriola put in two solid performances in the races, finishing the first one in 13^th position and the second in 10^th, which also meant his first WTCC championship point, third position in the Yokohama Trophy and victory in the new Jay-Ten Trophy reserved for drivers at the wheel of cars complying with the Appendix J 2010 of the Sporting Regulations.
With these results, Oriola emerged as the first leader of the trophy, 7 and 8 points ahead of Aleksei Dudukalo and Michel Nykjær respectively.

Pepe Oriola chased by Barth and Villa during the second race at Curitiba

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The Chevrolet team opened the turbo era in WTCC in style at Curitiba that also meant a great start to the season in which they aim to defend their world titles.
After setting pole position, Rob Huff scored a lights to flag win in the first race, with team-mates Yvan Muller and Carlos Bueno in tow. After finishing third in last year’s championship the young Englishman is now set to be the one of the most serious pretenders to WTCC throne.
Alain Menu won the second race after an exciting fight with Tom Coronel. His victory was not quite expected after he qualified yesterday in a disappointed 11^th position. But this time Lady Luck decided to help, promoting him to the pole position in Race 2 following the exclusion of his fellow countryman Fredy Barth.
Huff leaves Brazil as the leader of the championship, closely followed by Menu and Muller.
A double success of the Cruze cars powered by the new 1.6L engine was easy to be predicted, especially after the RML crew had worked so hard in development and testing. However, Coronel showed that the BMW 320 TC has not a big gap to fill. As a matter of fact the Dutchman was very close to create a surprise and win the second race.
The fight between Chevrolet and BMW is set to draw the attention in the first part of the season, at least until the SEAT and Volvo cars will also switch to the new engine.
If the drivers of the SEAT TDi were not far away from the pace of the winners (especially Gabriele Tarquini, Tiago Monteiro and Michel Nykjær), Robert Dahlgren and his Volvo suffered from the altitude that penalises the normally aspirated engines and also from a clutch failure.
In the Yokohama Trophy, Kristian Poulsen took the lead despite an accident in the second race that marked the first victory for the Spanish rookie Javier Villa who was able to master his BMW car despite the total lack of testing until Saturday morning.
His even younger compatriot Pepe Oriola was also able to shine and is now leading the new Jay-Ten Trophy.
The championship will resume at Zolder, Belgium, on April 24^th for rounds 3 and 4.

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Predictions came true as three Chevrolet turbo cars achieved the first places in the qualifying session at Curitiba.
It is not a surprise that Rob Huff and Yvan Muller will share the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1. However, the third blue car is not Menu’s as expected, but that of local Stock Car hero ‚Cacá‘ Bueno, as the Swiss racer failed to reach Q2.
The new system that determines the starting grid for the second race by reversing the top-ten drivers classified in Q1 proved spectacular as those who had adopted a conservative approach were forced to push or kicked off.

Q1 – Fastest laps improved quickly in the early minutes with Monteiro posting a 1:22.869 that nobody was able to beat. Poulsen was second fastest and best of the Yokohama Trophy.
The fight to win a top-ten spot was thrilling, with Huff capable of jumping back from 11^th to fifth just as the session expired, unintentionally kicking off his team-mate Menu.
Monteiro, Poulsen, Muller, Engstler, Huff, Bueno, Tarquini, Coronel, Barth and Nykjær proceeded to Q2, with the latter awarded with pole position for the second race.
Menu and Dahlgren were the first illustrious casualties of the season as they both were excluded at the last second and will line up 11^th and 12^th respectively on the grid for both races.

Q2 – The three remaining Chevrolet cars of Huff, Muller and Bueno posted the fastest times for good on their first lap out. The Briton’s impressive 1:21.758 smashed the existing lap record and gave him the first pole position of the season. Muller’s 1:22.147 and Bueno’s 1:22.503 were enough to secure them the second and third spot on the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1.
With a lap of 1:22.632 Nykjær secured the fourth spot of the grid and pole position for the Yokohama Trophy.
A common drama involved the group of drivers who waited until the last minutes for improving. When Coronel, Tarquini, Poulsen, Barth, Monteiro and Engstler were on their hot lap a light rain began to fall and as a results they all missed the braking point at the end of the straight and went wide, their hopes vanished.

PENALTIES PROMOTES MENU TO RACE 2 POLE
The penalties awarded by the Stewards after today’s qualifying demoted Fredy Barth and Darryl O’Young, but also promoted Alain Menu to pole position for tomorrow’s Race 2.
Barth and O’Young were stripped of all their qualifying times for different infringements.
The crew of the Hong Kong man worked on his car under parc fermé condition which resulted in O’Young being demoted from 15^th to 19^th.
Barth was penalised for missing twice the red light at the weighing bay and straight-cutting a chicane during Q1. The Stewards decided to exclude him from the qualifying results and pushed him to the back of the grids for both Race 1 and Race 2.
As a consequence of Barth’s exclusion, Menu was promoted to 10^th in the final results of Q1 that also meant pole position for Race 2.
Franz Engstler too had his fastest lap time disallowed from the Q2 results for straight-cutting a chicane. However this did not affect his tenth position.

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Tom Coronel emerged as the fastest driver in today’s test at Curitiba. At the wheel of his ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC the Dutchman posted a lap of 1:23.090 just before the end of the 30-minute session.
After the morning shake down the drivers begun to look for aspiration on the long straight and lap times improved drastically. Three other men were able to break the 1:24 mark: Huff (1:23.713), Muller (1:23.796) and Barth (1:23.864).
Tarquini (1:24.003) and Bueno (1:24.338) clocked the 5^th and 6^th fastest laps respectively ahead of the Liqui Moly duo of Poulsen and Engstler, with Dahlgren and his Volvo in 9^th position (1:24.379).
The session was disrupted once by the red flag after 14 minutes to tow Poulsen’s BMW off the gravel trap at the Esse de Alta.
In the dying moments Taniguchi took a big risk when his Chevrolet Lacetti ran very wide at the last corner, however the Japanese racer managed to avoid crashing into the tyre-wall.
Dudukalo did not take part as his team is still working to repair the cars after the massive morning crash; nor did Villa, whose car has still some mechanical issues to be solved..

Tom Coronel’s BMW was the fastest car in today’s test at Curitiba

THE WORD TO. TOM CORONEL
"It was one of those prefect lap you manage to post two, three times a year. I did not make any mistake and I benefited from a double slipstream on the straight from Poulsen and Menu. I was surprised by my time, but honestly I was at my limit.
I am very pleased, because this morning the car was driving me and I did not like it. For the afternoon test I adopted a more aggressive approach and asked for a number of set up changes. The package worked very well and I could feel I was in total control, though I did not expect such a big gap between me and the rest of the field."

DUDUKALO CRASHES IN WTCC SHAKE DOWN
The WTCC drivers hit the track for the first time at Curitiba for a shake down.
The session was due to last 90 minutes, however it was red-flagged with 20 minutes still on the clock and not resumed after Aleksei Dudukalo lost his SEAT TDi at the exit of the Esse da Alta and crashed heavily into the inside barriers. The Russian driver escaped unscathed while his car suffered from heavy damage.
Tiago Monteiro and his SEAT TDi created a surprise by setting the fastest lap of 1:24.360 ahead of the new Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 Turbo of Alain Menu (1:24.440) and Yvan Muller (1:24.446). The fourth fastest lap was clocked by Franz Engstler’s BMW 320 TC (1:24.472).
The top ten drivers were all covered by 0.6 seconds with Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo in 10^th position (1:25.036).
Gabriele Tarquini and Javier Villa did not post any lap time as their cars sat in the respective garages for the last adjustments.

Dudukalo’s SEAT is brought back to the pit after the crash

FOUR BRANDS TO FIGHT FOR MANUFACTURERS‘ TITLE
Four different brands will be fighting to win the 2011 FIA WTCC Manufacturers‘ Championship.
The complete list was released today by the FIA and it includes:
– Chevrolet Europe
– BMW Customer Racing Teams
– SR Customer Racing
– Volvo Polestar Evaluation Team
All the SEAT cars taking part in the championship are eligible to score points for the SR Customer Racing.

DRIVERS MEET FANS AND MEDIA IN CURITIBA
Official proceedings to the 2011 WTCC season got underway yesterday in the centre of Curitiba that hosts the championship’s opening meeting this weekend.
The promotional day began with the drivers parading through the city centre on board a double-decker bus and then meeting the fans in a crowded autograph sessions in the central Boca Maldita.
In the evening WTCC drivers joined the Secretary for Sport of Curitiba, Mr Marcelo Richa and championship promoter Marcello Lotti for a reception for local media at the WYN Club.
Two Chevrolet racing cars were exhibited in front of the building: Carlos Bueno’s WTCC Cruze and Max Wilson’s Stock Car.

Drivers meet the fans in the autograph session at the Boca Maldita

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