The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium (formally the 2010 FIA WTCC Monroe Race of Belgium) was the fourth round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Belgium. It was held at Circuit Zolder, near Heusden-Zolder, Belgium on 20 June 2010. It saw the return of the Race of Belgium to the championship, after it was last held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 2005. The first race was won by Gabriele Tarquini for SR-Sport and the second race was won by Andy Priaulx for BMW Team RBM.

Background After round three, Yvan Muller was leading the championship on 100 points, 24 ahead of Tarquini and Chevrolet RML teammate Robert Huff. Sergio Hernández was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Two Belgian drivers joined the field for the event, with Vincent Radermecker joining the factory Chevrolet RML team, while Pierre-Yves Corthals returned to the WTCC in an Exagon Engineering run SEAT León 2.0 TFSI.

Report

Testing and free practice Augusto Farfus set the fastest time in Friday testing, with his team–mate Priaulx finishing third. Between them was the Chevrolet Cruze of championship leader Muller. Darryl O'Young in the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti was fourth fastest and the lead independent driver. Alain Menu and Huff saw reduced running thanks to technical problems. Radermecker was the fastest of the two Belgian drivers in tenth. Corthals was 21st in the sole petrol SEAT entry.

Tiago Monteiro was quickest in the drying conditions of free practice one on Saturday morning, with team–mates Tom Coronel and Jordi Gené second and third. Farfus was the top BMW in fourth and seventh placed Menu was the leading Chevrolet.

Gené led the final practice session with Monteiro second, Muller third and Menu in fourth. Harry Vaulkhard was the fastest independent driver in fifth. The session was brought to a close four minutes early when the engine in Tarquini's SEAT blew, bringing out the red flags.

Qualifying Alain Menu was fastest in Q1 for Chevrolet, ahead of SR-Sport's Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini. The most notable casualty from the session was Tom Coronel, who was 11th fastest.

In the ten-minute Q2 session, eight of the ten competing cars set their first flying laptimes before rain began to fall over the circuit. Tarquini was fastest ahead of teammate Jordi Gené, Chevrolet teammates Menu and Yvan Muller and the SEATs of Norbert Michelisz, Fredy Barth and Monteiro. The BMW Team RBM pairing of Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus did not set times until after the rain arrived, meaning they could only set the ninth and tenth fastest times.

Warm-Up BMW Team RBM pair Priaulx and Farfus led Sunday morning warm–up.

Race One At the start of the race, pole sitter Tarquini was passed by SR-Sport teammate Gené. However, the Spaniard's start was put under investigation, as tt appeared that Gené was ahead of Tarquini as the pair crossed the line for the rolling start. Further behind, contact behind O'Young and Michel Nykjær put O'Young in the gravel, but he managed to rejoin the back of the pack. As the leaders remained in order, Kristian Poulsen passed Corthals for the independents lead and 12th place overall. Having dropped back to tenth place early on, Priaulx passed Coronel for eighth place and pole position for the reverse grid second race. Gené meanwhile took the victory ahead of Tarquini, Muller, Menu and Monteiro.

After the second race of the day, Gené was disqualified for a technical infringement, handing the victory to Tarquini.

Race Two Polesitter Priaulx made a good start to Race Two. Fellow front-row starter Norbert Michelisz made a slow getaway, dropping him to eighth. Coronel also made a slow start from ninth place. Priaulx, Huff, Monteiro, Menu and Muller followed each other around until the end of the race. Farfus attempted to pass Tarquini for sixth around the outside of turn one, but ran wide and dropped back to eighth behind Michelisz. Hernández took the independents victory in ninth position ahead of Coronel.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 1 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:38.999 1:38.265 2 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:39.061 1:38.430 3 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:38.840 1:38.494 4 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:39.037 1:38.584 5 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:39.187 1:38.779 6 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:39.072 1:39.072 7 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:39.151 1:39.173 8 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:38.875 1:39.255 9 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 1:39.030 1:42.856 10 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 1:39.112 1:52.493 11 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:39.456 12 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 1:39.472 13 27 Pierre-Yves Corthals Exagon Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TFSIY 1:39.610 14 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 1:39.824 15 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 1:39.863 16 35 Vincent Radermecker Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 1:40.003 17 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 1:40.058 18 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 1:40.278 19 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 1:40.287 20 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 1:40.395 21 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 1:40.738 22 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 1:42.934

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 21:54.209 1 25 2 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +2.629 4 18 3 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +3.056 3 15 4 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +3.559 8 12 5 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +3.866 5 10 6 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +4.192 6 8 7 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 +4.827 9 6 8 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +9.295 11 4 9 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 +9.453 10 2 10 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +9.655 7 1 11 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +13.373 15 12 27 Pierre-Yves Corthals SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TSFIY 13 +15.400 13 13 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +17.611 18 14 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 13 +18.240 21 15 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 13 +19.423 20 16 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +20.491 19 17 35 Vincent Radermecker Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +20.877 16 18 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +26.489 12 19 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 13 +54.042 22 20 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 12 +1 Lap 14 Ret 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 8 Gearbox 17 DSQ 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 Disqualified 2 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 11 Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 21:52.091 1 25 2 7 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +1.049 3 18 3 3 Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +1.754 4 15 4 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +2.298 5 12 5 6 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +4.784 6 10 6 1 Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +5.788 7 8 7 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +6.283 2 6 8 10 Augusto Farfus BMW Team RBM BMW 320si 13 +6.663 10 4 9 25 Sergio Hernández Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +13.491 14 2 10 2 Tom Coronel SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +14.810 9 1 11 24 Kristian Poulsen Poulsen Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +15.063 12 12 20 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 13 +18.227 21 13 26 Stefano D'Aste Scuderia Proteam Motorsport BMW 320siY 13 +18.876 17 14 35 Vincent Radermecker Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze LT 13 +20.678 18 15 27 Pierre-Yves Corthals SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TSFIY 13 +23.936 13 16 15 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 13 +24.353 22 17 16 Andrei Romanov Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 13 +55.610 20 18 18 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 13 +57.511 11 19 21 Mehdi Bennani Wiechers-Sport BMW 320siY 12 +1 Lap 15 Ret 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 7 Race incident 19 Ret 19 Harry Vaulkhard bamboo-engineering Chevrolet LacettiY 2 Race incident 16 Ret 4 Jordi Gené SR-Sport SEAT León 2.0 TDI 0 Turbo 8 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 128 2 Gabriele Tarquini 109 1 3 Andy Priaulx 105 1 4 Robert Huff 104 2 5 Tiago Monteiro 68

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Sergio Hernández 60 2 Stefano D'Aste 44 3 Mehdi Bennani 41 4 Franz Engstler 37 5 Harry Vaulkhard 36

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 256 2 SEAT Customers Technology 239 3 BMW 209

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