The 2005 FIA WTCC Race Of Mexico was the fifth round of the 2005 World Touring Car Championship season. It was held at the Autódromo Miguel E. Abed. Fabrizio Giovanardi won the first race from pole position for Alfa Romeo, and Peter Terting took his first and only WTCC win in the second race, which also turned out to be SEAT's second win.

Report

Qualifying Roberto Colciago took a shock pole position driving for Honda with a time of 1:29.830, with Peter Terting's SEAT very close behind. Fabrizio Giovanardi qualified third for Alfa Romeo, leading an Alfa quartet of Augusto Farfus, James Thompson and Gabriele Tarquini. However, Colciago, Terting and Farfus all had ten-place grid penalties for incidents in Imola and an engine change. The biggest shock in qualifying was that none of the factory BMWs qualified in the top ten. The first BMW was Antonio García in 11th, with reigning champion Andy Priaulx only 15th but still a spot ahead of championship leader Dirk Müller. Jörg Müller crashed heavily in practice and did not take part after that in the weekend due to a heavily damaged car.http://www.fiawtcc.com/archives/2005/reports/R09_10_Qualifying.pdf Qualifying report

Race 1 Roberto Colciago, Peter Terting and Augusto Farfus, who qualified on pole, 2nd and 4th respectively all suffered ten-place grid penalties, Terting for an engine change and the other two for dangerous driving in the previous race at Imola. Alfa Romeo, despite Farfus's penalty gratefully accepted that as their drivers Fabrizio Giovanardi, James Thompson and Gabriele Tarquini to start at the front. They maintained their positions early on, with Giovanardi leading Thompson and Tarquini, with Jordi Gené and Rickard Rydell following them in two SEATS, and Antonio García keeping BMW in the points. Gené crashed out on the second lap, leaving the three Alfas with a large 4.5 second gap after just 2 laps. Thompson stayed with Giovanardi in the early stages, however he lost pace as the race progressed, and was passed by Tarquini on lap 5. Thompson then had the rest of the pack close up on him, whereas Giovanardi and Tarquini continued to drive away at a rate of knots. Meanwhile, Roberto Colciago was on a charge after his penalty, jumping up from 11th to 5th after 3 laps. He then passed Rydell for fourth and was attacking third-placed Thompson when his gearbox broke and he had to retire. Robert Huff was in the points for Chevrolet, and a late race pass on Peter Terting put him up to a sensational 6th, and on the last lap Rydell passed Thompson to take third. Giovanardi took his second win in two weekends, with teammate Tarquini close behind. Rydell completed the podium, a massive 11 seconds behind, with Thompson, García, Huff, Terting and Tom Coronel, the latter of whom won the Independent's Trophy. Dirk Müller and Andy Priaulx, first and second in the championship finished well out of the points in their BMWs.http://www.fiawtcc.com/archives/2005/reports/R09_10_Races.pdf Race report

Race 2 Independent driver Tom Coronel started on pole after finishing eighth in Race 1, however it was Peter Terting who took the lead at the start followed by García. Coronel, Thompson, Huff, Rydell, Giovanardi and Jason Plato in a factory SEAT completed the top 8, whereas Tarquini and Alex Zanardi's BMW collided, taking both out of the race. The front two started to pull away but Thompson soon got up to third and joined in, and his teammate Giovanardi passed Rydell and Huff on lap 2 before passing Coronel a lap later to get 4th; however he was 4 seconds behind the top three. Terting led with García and Thompson close behind, until an overtaking attempt by Thompson on García saw them bang wheels and go off the track, with García still rejoining second, but having lost time to Terting, while Thompson lost a place to Giovanardi.

Classification

Race 1 Pos No Driver Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Fabrizio Giovanardi Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 26:06.219 1 10 2 2 Gabriele Tarquini Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +2.172 3 8 3 8 Rickard Rydell SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +11.525 5 6 4 3 James Thompson Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +13.298 2 5 5 5 Antonio García BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 17 +13.772 7 4 6 21 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 17 +15.658 6 3 7 10 Peter Terting SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +18.554 12 2 8 20 IT Tom Coronel GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +21.880 9 1 9 7 Augusto Farfus Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +24.487 14 10 22 Nicola Larini Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 17 +25.072 10 11 11 Jason Plato SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +25.390 20 12 30 IT Stefano D'Aste Proteam Motorsport BMW 320i 17 +26.260 16 13 4 Alex Zanardi BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 17 +27.351 19 14 31 IT Giuseppe Cirò Proteam Motorsport BMW 320i 17 +27.891 17 15 18 IT Carlos Mastretta GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +32.664 18 16 28 IT Carl Rosenblad Crawford Racing BMW 320i 17 +35.650 22 17 32 IT Marc Hennerici Wiechers-Sport BMW 320i 17 +39.301 21 18 43 Dirk Müller BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 12 +5 Laps 15 NC 1 Andy Priaulx BMW Team UK BMW 320i 11 +6 Laps 13 Ret 26 Roberto Colciago JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 10 Gearbox 11 NC 23 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 7 +10 Laps 8 Ret 9 Jordi Gené SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 1 Accident 4 DNS 27 IT Adriano de Micheli JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 0 23 DNS 42 Jörg Müller BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 0 24

Race 2 Pos No Driver Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 10 Peter Terting SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 26:10.825 2 10 2 5 Antonio García BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 17 +0.693 4 8 3 6 Fabrizio Giovanardi Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +7.578 8 6 4 3 James Thompson Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +11.621 5 5 5 20 IT Tom Coronel GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +13.038 1 4 6 8 Rickard Rydell SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +13.630 6 3 7 22 Nicola Larini Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 17 +17.091 10 2 8 1 Andy Priaulx BMW Team UK BMW 320i 17 +17.543 18 1 9 31 IT Giuseppe Cirò Proteam Motorsport BMW 320i 17 +21.098 14 10 7 Augusto Farfus Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 17 +21.704 9 11 30 IT Stefano D'Aste Proteam Motorsport BMW 320i 17 +23.079 12 12 11 Jason Plato SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +23.822 11 13 23 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 17 +25.176 19 14 32 IT Marc Hennerici Wiechers-Sport BMW 320i 17 +28.942 17 15 28 IT Carl Rosenblad Crawford Racing BMW 320i 17 +29.373 16 16 43 Dirk Müller BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 17 +30.788 22 17 18 IT Carlos Mastretta GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra 17 +34.149 15 18 26 Roberto Colciago JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 17 +37.461 21 19 9 Jordi Gené SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 12 +5 Laps 20 Ret 21 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 7 Accident 3 Ret 4 Alex Zanardi BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 1 Damage 13 Ret 2 Gabriele Tarquini Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 0 Collision 7 DNS 27 IT Adriano de Micheli JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 0 23 DNS 42 Jörg Müller BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 0 24

Standings after the races

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Dirk Müller 47 2 Fabrizio Giovanardi 45 3 Andy Priaulx 42 4 Antonio García 39 5 Gabriele Tarquini 38

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 BMW 129 2 Alfa Romeo 129 3 SEAT 98 4 Chevrolet 32 5 Ford 2

References

External links