NEWS // THOMPSON & CAMPANICO WIN @ ETCC ROUND 1

With the formation of an expanded FIA European Touring Car Cup championship for 2010, Braga in Portugal was the scence for this weekends opening round of the season.

Hartmann Honda Racing’s James Thompson and Tomas Engström claimed a 1-2 finish in the first race at the end of an exciting four-car battle for the lead. Thompson took command at the start from Campaniço and Poulsen. On lap 3, Okyay and Čolak made contact while fighting for sixth and the latter dropped by two places. On lap 5 Engström took fourth from Rossi... [read more]

Thompson was closely chased by Campaniço and Poulsen; the latter benefited from Campaniço’s failed attempt to take the lead and overtook the Portuguese. In the following laps Thompson had serious problems in keeping his chasers at bay, while Engström was able to fill the gap and joined the leading trio.

On lap 12 Okyay overtook Rossi for fifth, while Sadredinov and Y. Protasov were fighting over eighth position.
The last five laps saw plenty of action for the leaders. On lap 13 Campaniço overtook Poulsen, nearly punting Thompson off. The Briton managed to stay on the track, while Engström benefited from the chaos and climbed to second. Poulsen passed Campaniço for third and in the final moments tried in vain to move ahead of Engström.
Y. Protasov finished eighth and won pole position on the reverse grid for Race 2.

In the S1600 class, Löhnig claimed a comfortable victory after taking the lead from Seifert on lap 7. In the Super Production class Birkens retired with engine problems while he was in 10th position overall.

Race two saw local hero César Campaniço drive his Novadrive BMW 320si to a home victory. The Portuguese driver took the lead in the first part of the race jumping his fellow BMW competitors Kristian Poulsen and Ibrahim Okyay. The Dane finished as runner up, while the Turkish was forced to hand third place to a recovering James Thompson.

From pole position Y. Protasov took a good start, but he lost the lead to Okyay at the first braking. Rossi and Engström clashed at Turn 1; the former went off and retired, the latter rejoined at the back. By the end of lap 1 Poulsen and Campaniço were biting Okyay’s tail, while Thompson moved up to fourth overtaking Y. Protasov and Čolak in the same manoeuvre.
On lap 3 Campaniço made his move, overtaking Poulsen and Okyay one after the other and taking the lead. Immediately afterwards Poulsen took second from Okyay. On lap 4, while fighting over sixth position, Sadredinov and Engström made contact at Turn 1, the Swede collected Y. Protasov who spun.

Campaniço built a comfortable lead over Poulsen; on lap 6 Thompson stole third from Okyay, which secured him the point lead in the S2000 Cup. The final laps were enlivened by the battle for fifth position between Čolak and Sadredinov; the Russian youngster was eventually able to overtake his Croatian competitor on the last-but-one lap.

In the S1600 class, Löhnig encored the first race, chasing Seifert in the early stages, overtaking him on lap 6 and claiming his second victory of the day. Birkens – the only competitor in the Super Production class – did not take the start due to the engine failure that stopped hi Honda Civic car in the first race.

Race one winner James Thompson felt that although getting off to a great start with victory in race one, the 30 kilo weight disadvantage to his rivals BMW's needs to be reassessed "“I’m very pleased with this win that came mainly from yesterday’s pole position. Our car is 30 kilos heavier than the BMWs and this is a big gap. I believe the second race showed what the real positions at the moment are. This was a perfect weekend for us and we have done everything right to take the most out of it using the package that we have.

The first race was especially difficult, because from the start I had to defend my position and as the race progressed the BMWs were closer and closer while my car was having more and more problems with the front tyres.”

Editorial: Neil Tozer
Images and Info: ETCC