Algumas imagens, artigos e opiniões irão ser colocadas tendo por base principalmente o meu arquivo, assim como o contributo de outros entusiastas sobre automóveis.
A equipe do antigo piloto de Formula 1 Adrián Campos esteve em Vila Real 2018 com dois CUPRA TCR para Pepe Oriola e John Filippi da no team Oscaro by Campos Racing
Thed Björk stamped his mark on Race 3 at WTCR Race of Portugal with an emphatic lights-to-flag victory. 👊🏻
Thed: “The speed in my car, I felt it in Race 2 so I didn’t want to risk anything, just finish it and do this race. I was flying. I love the streets in Vila Real and I was just flying."
Pepe Oriola weathered the storms on track over the weekend to take his car home in one piece every race, 2 podiums from 3 and a place in Q3 were enough to net him 50 points and comfortably take home the TAG Heuer MVD award. #WTCR#TAGHeuerIsMotorRacing#DontCrackUnderPressure
Avec son tracé dans les rues de Vila Real, la sixième épreuve du FIA WTCR promettait d’être un sacré défi pour Benjamin Lessennes. Et le plus jeune des participants de la Coupe du Monde des Voitures de Tourisme ne fut pas déçu… « Je peux maintenant le confirmer : Vila Real est effectivement un circuit très compliqué ! », glissait le pilote de la Honda Civic du Boutsen Ginion Racing. « C’est un tracé très rapide, entre les murs et les rails, et le revêtement est très bosselé. Il y a des courbes à l’aveugle et les voitures sont plus rigides que d’habitude pour avaler les vibreurs, ce qui veut dire qu’elles sont plus difficiles à piloter. Alors oui, Vila Real était un fameux challenge pour moi ! »
C’est d’autant plus vrai que la préparation de Benjamin était limitée par rapport aux épreuves précédentes. « Il est très difficile de trouver ce circuit urbain pour s’entrainer sur un simulateur », explique le jeune Belge, qui fêtera ses 19 ans ce vendredi. « Grâce à Simtag, j’ai tout de même pu l’apprendre sur une version qu’ils ont pu dénicher, mais celle-ci n’était pas parfaitement fidèle à la réalité. Ça m’a juste permis de connaître le tracé… Je comptais donc beaucoup sur les deux séances d’essais libres de 30 minutes ! Hélas, je n’ai pas fait un mètre dans la première à cause d’un problème électronique… Frustrant, mais ça fait partie de la course. »
Effectuer une petite dizaine de tours seulement sur un circuit aussi compliqué n’est pas le scénario idéal pour préparer la séance d’essais qualificatifs. Mais Benjamin s’en sortait une fois encore avec les honneurs en signant le 14e chrono ! « Quand on sait que les 9 premières places étaient occupées par des pilotes ayant déjà roulé à Vila Real, disons que j’ai bien limité les dégâts », glissait-il.
Lors de la première confrontation, la Honda Civic #63 portant les couleurs de Coyote et de Meta System parvenait à éviter l’incroyable carambolage du premier tour. Et lorsque la course était relancée, Benjamin se classait à une belle 7e place, marquant ainsi de nouveaux points au championnat.
Le dimanche, sous la canicule, il s’offrait un 12e temps lors des essais qualificatifs. « J’ai terminé à 21 millièmes seulement de la 10e place. Quand on sait que le Top 10 est inversé pour former la grille de départ de la Course 2, il y a de quoi avoir des regrets... »
Benjamin s’élançait donc de la 12e position pour cette deuxième confrontation, mais une petite touchette dans le peloton l’incitait à rentrer au stand pour s’assurer d’avoir une voiture en parfait état pour la troisième et dernière joute. À nouveau 12e sur la grille, le protégé du Boutsen Ginion Racing exploitait au mieux le tour joker exclusif à ce circuit (et qui oblige les pilotes à emprunter un parcours moins rapide à une reprise durant la course) pour se porter à la 8e place et de nouveau engranger quelques points.
« J’apprends énormément lors de chaque course, mais ce fut particulièrement vrai ici », souriait Benjamin au moment de tirer les conclusions. « Je suis content d’avoir pu éviter les erreurs sur ce tracé tellement spécifique tout en affichant tout de même un bon rythme… J’espère que l’expérience accumulée cette année pourra me servir si je reviens l’année prochaine ! »
Yann Ehrlacher battled to a pair of top-10 finishes on the streets of Vila Real to keep himself in contention for the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup.
The Frenchman and his ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport team-mates Esteban Guerrieri and James Thompson were innocent victims of a major opening-lap incident on Saturday that involved nearly the entire 27-car grid.
While Esteban’s car was able to take Saturday’s re-started race, the Honda Civic Type R TCRs of Yann and James looked beyond repair.
Incredible work overnight by the German team miraculously returned Yann’s car to near-showroom condition, enabling him to qualify fifth and finish the day’s two races in seventh; results that keep him second in the championship at the season’s midway point.
After finishing second on Saturday, Esteban’s car suffered a mechanical issue in qualifying that restricted him to 19th on the grid.
Having been put into the wall in Race Two by another driver, the Argentinian had to start Race Three from the back and came home 13th; the allowed ‘repair time’ not being sufficient to fix the damage to the left-front corner. James’ car was unfortunately too-badly damaged to fix on-site.
Belgian teenager Benjamin Lessennes scored a fine eighth place in Race Three for Boutsen Ginion Racing.
Having started 12th, he took his joker lap early. His team’s canny strategy paid off as several safety-car periods meant that the majority of the field were forced to wait until the final lap, which gained him four places in one go.
Team-mate Tom Coronel showed top-six pace in morning qualifying, but was unlucky to suffer front punctures in Q1 and both races, which ended his chances of adding to his points total.
Portuguese wildcard Jose Rodrigues kept his nose clean as attrition levels were high. Driving an older-spec Civic Type R TCR, the Target Competition racer qualified 23rd and finished Race Two in 16th place.
He was on the verge of a points-scoring top-10 finish in Race Three when he sustained a last-lap front puncture, which put him in the wall. Although he did not cross the finish line, he was classified in 15th spot.
The next WTCR round takes place at the Slovakia Ring near Bratislava, on July 13-14.
Yann Ehrlacher 68
“I cannot even begin to describe how amazing the mechanics are in this team. The worked all night without sleep and got my car ready for today’s races. It was a fast car too and if I hadn’t made a mistake on my Q3 lap, I could have been on the front row. Two seventh places could be very important for the championship, because it could easily have been two non-starts today. I’m second in the points and we have a fast car, so there’s every reason to stay optimistic for the next event in Slovakia.”
LL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Esteban Guerrieri 86
“Yesterday we had a great result with a podium, but today didn’t go so well. A couple of little mechanical issues in qualifying left me 19th and put me in fightback mode for the Races. Unfortunately, in Race Two, Frederic Vervisch made a completely amateur move and simply drove me into the wall. The car had too much damage to fix without breaking Parc Ferme and that meant I started last in Race Three. From there, it’s impossible to recover.”
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Benjamin Lessennes 63
“I feel pretty good about today. On the one hand, I missed the reversed-grid pole by just two hundredths of a second, but I did the maximum possible with the car in that session. In Race Two I was battling with Nathanael Berthon on the first lap and he came across on me way too late and we had contact, which put me out. In Race Three I went from 12th to eighth because we made a great call on the joker lap strategy, and I have to thank my team for that.”
Boutsen Ginion Racing
Tom Coronel 9
“It’s been a frustrating day. I had a front puncture in qualifying, so I hit the wall and had to start at the back. Then I got front punctures in both of the races, which made a good result possible. It’s a real shame because in Q1 the car was extremely fast. I lost a couple of laps because of minor track-limit violations, but my best lap would have put me in Q2 with a top-six time and that speed was genuine as well.”
Boutsen Ginion Racing
Jose Rodrigues 26
“What a day! I’ve raced here five times now, and that final race today was by far the toughest I’ve had. The heat was incredible and my car is heavier and less powerful than anything else here due to the compensation weight, wildcard weight and BoP, but despite this, I think I could have points in Race Three because I was up from 24th to 12th and keeping pace with Tom Coronel and Esteban Guerrieri. Unfortunately, I got a puncture and hit the wall, but I’m so pleased with the job we’ve done as a team today in the circumstances.”
Target Competition
Dominik Greiner
Team Manager
“Today’s results were only possible because of the incredible effort that the entire team made to get Yann’s car ready. They didn’t sleep and they worked all night and those two seventh places might be the most important results of the year when we get to the crunch time for the championship. They’re superhuman and deserve all the credit. Unfortunately, James’s car wasn’t repairable, and Esteban had some misfortune too, but we’re still in the hunt and we’ll bounce back in Slovakia.”
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport
Olivia Boutsen
Team Manager
“It’s been a very hectic weekend, but Benjamin has come through very well with a strong eighth position in Race Three. We had some luck because the number of safety cars in Race Three meant that our joker-lap strategy worked perfectly, but it was also our decision to get him to take it when he did, and that paid off. It’s a real shame that the punctures stopped Tom from scoring the points that he deserved, because he had strong pace today.”
Boutsen Ginion Racing
Andreas Gummerer
Team Principal
“In the circumstances, today’s race results were OK. It was incredibly tough on track with the temperatures and with a lot of hard racing, so Jose did a good job to be classified in both races. We made some improvements overnight and they definitely made things better today. The reality is we have the oldest car here and the BoP and compensation weight also makes it the heaviest, so keeping up with some of the other cars was a big challenge. It was an interesting experience to come here as a wildcard entrant.”
Target Competition
Mads Fischer
TCR Project Leader, JAS Motorsport
“Today showed what incredible levels of team spirit exist within our customer WTCR teams. The Münnich team did an amazing job to fix Yann’s car and Boutsen Ginion Racing have also done a very good job to get both cars on-track today. Yann is still in the hunt and I’m sure the Civic Type R TCR will be competitive when we get to Slovakia next month. I think this weekend we’ve seen a lot of cars take a lot of damage and I’d like to see less contact in races from now on, because nobody benefits when these kinds of weekends happen.”
Yann Ehrlacher chega a Vila Real como líder do WTCR
Alors que le WTCR reprend après une pause d’un mois ce week-end dans les rues de Vila Real, Yann Ehrlacher fera partie des hommes à battre en sa qualité de leader du championnat au volant de sa Honda Civic Type R du ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport.
Auteur de deux podiums dont une victoire à Zandvoort, le jeune pilote français est ainsi le nouveau leader du WTCR. Un statut qu’il devra défendre ce week-end à Vila Real, au Portugal, cinquième étape de la saison 2018, et l’un des circuits les plus spectaculaires du calendrier.
Tracé dans les rues de la cité portugaise, le circuit de Vila Real est exigeant, avec ses montées, ses descentes, et ses vitesses élevées entre les rails. Au volant de sa Honda du Münnich Motorsport, Yann Ehrlacher entend bien continuer à jouer les premiers rôles.
« Vila Real est un circuit très compliqué. Cela va très vite pour un circuit en ville, il y a beaucoup de dénivelé. C’est une étape particulière du calendrier du WTCR. Pour ma part, même en tant que leader du championnat, j’aborde cette course sans pression supplémentaire. La saison est encore longue, il sera temps de se mettre la pression avant d’aborder la dernière course à Macao, si par bonheur je suis en tête du classement à ce moment-là. »
« L’autre paramètre à prendre en compte est la chaleur qui régnera sur la piste ce week-end. Il fera très chaud dans les voitures, surtout si on roule en paquet. Ce sera éprouvant pour les pilotes mais aussi pour la mécanique. Mais j’ai hâte d’y être. »
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Yann Ehrlacher 68
Esteban Guerrieri 86
Benjamin Lessennes 63
Tom Coronel 9
Jose Rodrigues 26
Dominik Greiner 
Olivia Boutsen 
Andreas Gummerer .jpg?size=l "5b2e37733e330-320x320 (1).jpg")
