The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Italy (formally the 2010 FIA WTCC Yokohama Race of Italy) was the third round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the sixth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Italy. It was held at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, in Monza, Italy on 23 May 2010. The two races were won by Andy Priaulx for BMW Team RBM and Yvan Muller for Chevrolet RML.

Background After the second round of the season in Morocco, defending champion Gabriele Tarquini was leading the drivers' standings by seven points over Yvan Muller. Franz Engstler was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Kristian Poulsen returned to the championship with his self–run Poulsen Motorsport team. He last raced with Liqui Moly Team Engstler at the 2009 Guia Race of Macau. Meanwhile Scuderia Proteam Motorsport added a third BMW 320si to their team for Italian driver Fabio Fabiani. Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden joined the grid for the Italian round, running a Chevrolet Cruze LT for TC 2000 Championship driver Leonel Pernía who became the first Argentine to race in the World Touring Car Championship.

Report

Testing and free practice BMW Team RBM driver Augusto Farfus was the fastest driver in Friday's test session, beating the Chevrolet of Muller and the SEAT of Tom Coronel. Championship leader Tarquini was fourth and Pernía was thirteenth on his first run in a Super 2000 car. Priaulx suffered a brake disk failure at the end of the pit straight and nearly collided with Alain Menu while Fredy Barth, Sergio Hernández and Mehdi Bennani all saw reduced running due to technical issues.

Tarquini topped the times in the first practice session on Saturday morning, two–tenths of a second ahead of Priaulx. Jordi Gené was third and Robert Huff was the fastest Chevrolet in fourth. Andrei Romanov required an engine change and as a result incurred a ten–place grid penalty for race one.

Chevrolet were fastest in the final practice session with Huff beating the BMW of Priaulx by less than a tenth of a second. Morning pace setter Tarquini was third while Huff's teammates Menu and Muller were fourth and fifth respectively.

Qualifying Tarquini was fastest in Q1 for SR-Sport, ahead of the Chevrolet pairing of Huff and Muller. In Q2 the diesel-powered SEATs followed each other round the circuit to use teamwork and slipstreaming to get good times. However, Tarquini ran wide at the second Lesmo with Barth also following him into the dirt. This ruined their laptimes, resulting in the BMWs and Chevrolets locking out the first two rows of the grid, with Augusto Farfus on pole position ahead of Huff, Priaulx, Menu and Muller. Gené was the first SEAT in 6th, with Tarquini in 7th.http://www.fiawtcc.com/html/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.4.2010522183032.pdf Qualifying Report

Warm-Up Priaulx topped the Sunday morning warm–up session with pole sitter and teammate Farfus fourth. Pernía and Hernández had problems meaning they couldn't set competitive lap times.

Race One Huff moved past polesitter Farfus at the start of Race One. Tarquini, meanwhile, moved from seventh to second in the run to the first chicane. Behind, many drivers cut across the grass at the chicane, while Kristian Poulsen and Darryl O'Young collided, both limping back to the pits to retire. Tarquini passed Huff at the start of the second lap and the pair began to stretch the gap back to third-placed Priaulx. However, on the final lap, Tarquini suffered a front-left puncture on the run down to the Ascari chicane. As Huff moved out to pass him, he also suffered a front-left puncture. The pair limped down the following straight, with Priaulx and the following pack closing them down. However, the leading pair could not be passed initially, with yellow flags out at the beginning of the Parabolica after Leonel Pernía had slid into the gravel on the previous lap. Once the green flags were shown, Priaulx and Farfus passed the slowing Tarquini and then Huff, to take a dramatic one-two finish for BMW. Behind, Michel Nykjær had also suffered a puncture. Huff limped past the line to finish third, ahead of Muller, Coronel and Barth. Tarquini and Nykjær finished seventh and eighth, ahead of Tiago Monteiro and Bennani.http://www.fiawtcc.com/html/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.4.201052320320.pdf Race Report Bennani however was given a 30-second penalty after the race for cutting the first chicane on the opening lap, handing tenth place and a first Independents' Trophy victory to Harry Vaulkhard. Bennani loses Independent victory

Race Two Nykjær made a good start from pole position in Race Two, while Muller moved up from fifth to second before the first chicane. Tarquini regained second from Muller and briefly took the lead of the race from Nykjær. Tarquini was then awarded a drive-through penalty for creeping forward on the grid before the lights had gone out. Bennani was also given a penalty having made a much more obvious jump start. Before Tarquini could serve his penalty though, he was re-passed by Nykjær at the first chicane. The Dane led the race until the last lap when he suffered a puncture, pulling off the track and retiring at the second chicane. This handed Muller the victory, ahead of Coronel, Huff, Farfus and Priaulx. Having served his drive-through penalty, Tarquini returned to the pits to retire on the following lap.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 1 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 2:01.126 2:00.672 2 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 2:00.775 2:00.697 3 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 2:00.941 2:00.807 4 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 2:01.091 2:00.899 5 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 2:00.834 2:01.078 6 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:01.629 2:01.400 7 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:00.690 2:01.544 8 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:01.006 2:01.731 9 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:01.581 2:01.926 10 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:00.862 2:01.927 11 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:01.765 12 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 2:02.186 13 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 2:02.235 14 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 2:02.384 15 34 Leonel Pernía Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze LT 2:02.441 16 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 2:02.829 17 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 2:02.834 18 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 2:02.983 19 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 2:03.276 20 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 2:04.260 21 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 2:04.327 22 33 Fabio Fabiani Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 2:08.144

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 9 18:32.008 3 25 2 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 9 +0.248 1 18 3 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 +1.653 2 15 4 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 +1.820 5 12 5 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +2.271 12 10 6 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +2.308 9 8 7 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +2.375 7 6 8 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +2.726 10 4 9 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +3.243 15 2 10 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 9 +9.032 13 1 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +10.000 19 12 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +11.575 20 13 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 9 +30.320 22 14 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 9 +33.972 16 15 33 Fabio Fabiani Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +59.155 21 16 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 8 +1 Lap 6 17 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 8 +1 Lap 4 18 34 Leonel Pernía Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze LT 7 +2 Laps 14 19 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 7 +2 Laps 8 Ret 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 3 Engine 18 Ret 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 1 Race incident 11 Ret 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 1 Race incident 17 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 18:29.805 5 25 2 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +0.512 4 18 3 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 +0.822 6 15 4 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 9 +1.001 7 12 5 11 Andy Priaulx' BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 9 +1.742 8 10 6 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +3.495 16 8 7 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +4.197 9 6 8 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +4.580 18 4 9 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 +5.099 17 2 10 34 Leonel Pernía Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze LT 9 +9.918 20 1 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +11.856 12 12 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 9 +13.499 19 13 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 9 +14.368 11 14 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 9 +14.506 3 15 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +14.836 21 16 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +15.266 13 17 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 9 +33.557 10 18 33 Fabio Fabiani Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 9 +49.454 15 19 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 8 +1 Lap 1 20 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 6 +3 Laps 2 Ret 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 2 Oil pressure 14 DNS 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 0 Did not start 22 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Yvan Muller 100 1 2 Gabriele Tarquini 76 3 Robert Huff 76 4 Andy Priaulx 74 3 5 Tom Coronel 57

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Sergio Hernández 41 2 2 Stefano D'Aste 36 3 Mehdi Bennani 35 3 4 Franz Engstler 34 1 5 Harry Vaulkhard 32

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 1 Chevrolet 193 1 2 SEAT Customers Technology 177 3 BMW 158

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

Results Booklet PDF at MST Systems

External links World Touring Car Championship official website