Brno (27th July 2010).- The 13th and 14th rounds of the FIA WTCC will take place this week in the Czech Republic, at Brno's Masaryk Circuit.
This is a traditional meeting for the championship, as Brno hosted the European Touring Car Championship from 2002 to 2004, and then the World Touring Car Championship from 2006.
BMW notched up six victories out of the eight WTCC races; only Chevrolet (Robert Huff won Race 2 in 2006) and SEAT (Gabriele Tarquini in 2008 Race 2) have managed to break the German cars' supremacy.
The 2009 meeting saw a domination of BMW Team Italy-Spain. Alessandro Zanardi won the first race while his teammate Sergio Hernández claimed his first WTCC victory in the second one. This year Hernández drives for Proteam Motorsport and is the current leader of the Independents' Trophy.
The WTCC will field 22 cars in the Czech Republic, with the addition of the race-by-race entries of Colin Turkington (eBay Motors) and Fabio Fabiani. The latter returns to the wheel of Proteam's third BMW car that he drove in Monza earlier this year.
Winning cars stay on the maximum weight
The championship's winning cars: BMW 320si, SEAT León TDI and Chevrolet Cruze will stay on the maximum 40kg handicap weights at Brno, for the second consecutive event.
The compensation weight was determined by the lap times set in Belgium, Portugal and UK. According to this calculation, the SEAT and the Chevrolet equally share the "honour" of being the fastest cars, only two tenths faster than the BMW.
The Chevrolet Lacetti cars will again have 20kg deducted from their minimum weight, while the old BMWs have lost half of this bonus after Colin Turkington's strong performance at Brands Hatch.
Compensation weight Brno
- + 40 kg BMW 320si, SEAT León TDI, Chevrolet Cruze LT
- ± 0 kg BMW 320si (with sequential gearbox)
- - 10 kg BMW 320si (old model)
- - 20 kg Chevrolet Lacetti