The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Italy was the opening round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the eighth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Italy. It was held on 11 March 2012 at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy. Lukoil Racing driver Gabriele Tarquini took pole position for the first race, with Zengő Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz on pole for the second race after the top ten qualifiers were reversed. Both races were won by Yvan Muller for Chevrolet.

Background Chevrolet and BMW would once again be represented on the grid while SEAT returned with an official customer programme. Ford would also be on the grid courtesy of the independently run Team Aon Ford Focus driven by Tom Chilton and James Nash.

Chevrolet retained their lineup of defending drivers' champion Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu. Darryl O'Young switched from bamboo-engineering to Special Tuning Racing. He was to be joined by Tom Boardman but due to a shortage of the new Oreca built SEAT 1.6T engine his return to the championship was delayed until the Race of Spain. 2011 STCC champion Rickard Rydell returned to the championship for the first round of the season driving a Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T. Gábor Wéber joined Norbert Michelisz at Zengő Motorsport, Alex MacDowall and Pasquale di Sabatino lined up at bamboo-engineering and former Superstars Series driver Alberto Cerqui joined Tom Coronel at ROAL Motorsport. Charles Ng returned to Liqui Moly Team Engstler for a full season having raced for the team at the end of 2011. Andrea Barlesi joined SUNRED Engineering in an old specification SEAT León TDI and Isaac Tutumlu joined Mehdi Bennani at Proteam Racing.

The qualifying format was changed prior to the event, with 12 cars progressing through to Q2 where the top 5 cars would score points. The top ten cars in Q2 would then be reversed to form the race two grid.

Report

Free Practice Chevrolet cars dominated the free testing session on Thursday; Muller led Huff, Menu, series rookie MacDowall and Rydell at the top of the times while Michelisz was best of the rest in his BMW 320 TC.

Track action resumed on Saturday morning when Huff set the fastest time in the works Chevrolet in Free Practice 1, 0.241 seconds ahead of the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT of Gabriele Tarquini. The session was briefly stopped to clear oil from the track which had caught out Pepe Oriola and Tom Chilton.

It was the turn of Menu to set the fastest time in the second free practice session, setting his fastest time at the beginning of the session and remaining there until the end. Tarquini was second once again with the SEAT producing consistent straight line speed. Although the session was not stopped, yellow flags went out as the SEAT of Barlesi was removed from the gravel trap at the Parabolica.

Qualifying Tarquini took pole position, the first non-Chevrolet pole since the 2010 Race of Spain, where pole was also taken by Tarquini in a SEAT. Muller would start on the front row but he only made it into Q2 thanks to a tow from his team mates, who lined up behind him on the second row. Q1 had been red flagged with under two minutes remaining as the ROAL Motorsport car of Cerqui ended up in the gravel trap at the Parabolica. The session was restarted but without enough time to complete a timed lap so most of the cars remained in the pits. Twelve cars progressed to Q2 with Oriola taking the independents' trophy pole and Michelisz claiming the reversed grid pole for race two.

Warm-Up Muller was fastest in the Sunday morning warm up session, that was stopped due to a fire for Special Tuning Racing driver O'Young. He stopped the car and evacuated; the damage was enough to rule him out of participating in the rest of the weekend.

Race One Tarquini started from pole but was soon passed by Muller. A mistake by Muller at the end of the lap allowed Tarquini to regain the lead but the positions switched back on lap two. Huff later passed Tarquini for second to seal a Chevrolet 1–2. A first lap collision forced Tiago Monteiro to retire and delayed Stefano D'Aste and Franz Engstler. Rydell ran as high as third during the race but had to settle for fourth at the end, ahead of Coronel and independents' trophy winner Oriola. Menu finished a distant seventh from his team mates and MacDowall was the top rookie with eighth.

Race Two Michelisz started on the reversed grid pole position and escaped many of the tangles that caught out some of the more experienced drivers behind him. A second lap nudge from Huff approaching the first chicane sent Muller into a spin and caught out Tarquini behind. Muller went through the chicane and across the grass backwards but he recovered without losing much time while Tarquini punctured a tyre and retired. From there, Muller picked off the cars ahead one at a time to catch up with race leader Michelisz. Passing Michelisz proved difficult and at one point, third placed Coronel was able to take second from Muller before losing it again shortly after. Michelisz struck a pigeon on lap seven and Muller passed him later on that lap. Michelisz lost some pace after this and dropped down the order, to fifth by the end of the lap, eventually finishing eighth. Rydell had a bad start and recovered to tenth place to score another point in his one off outing. Muller led a Chevrolet 1–2–3 with Menu second and Huff third; D'Aste was the Yokohama Trophy winner after finishing fifth.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 Points 1 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 1:58.004 1:57.915 5 2 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:58.191 1:57.974 4 3 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:58.243 1:58.106 3 4 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:58.527 1:58.200 2 5 9 Rickard Rydell Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:59.144 1:58.319 1 6 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 1:59.120 1:58.389 7 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 1:58.532 1:58.412 8 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 1:59.262 1:58.507 9 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 1:58.942 1:58.649 10 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 1:58.524 1:58.652 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC Y 1:59.187 1:58.931 12 27 Gábor Wéber Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 1:59.350 1:59.348 13 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 1:59.435 14 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:59.563 15 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 1:59.723 16 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SEAT León TDi 1:59.743 17 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 1:59.841 18 12 Pasquale Di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 1:59.891 19 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 1:59.949 20 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 2:00.300 21 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SEAT León TDI Y 2:00.394 22 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 2:01.333 23 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC Y No time Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 26:01.705 2 25 2 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 +0.446 3 18 3 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 12 +2.305 1 15 4 9 Rickard Rydell Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 +2.745 5 12 5 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 12 +3.796 6 10 6 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 12 +6.111 7 8 7 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 12 +6.326 4 6 8 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 12 +8.287 8 4 9 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 12 +8.431 10 2 10 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 12 +9.257 16 1 11 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC Y 12 +9.465 11 12 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 12 +12.082 12 13 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 12 +12.668 14 14 12 Pasquale Di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 12 +15.886 17 15 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 12 +48.135 18 16 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 12 +56.503 13 17 27 Gábor Wéber Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 11 Damage 22 18 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 10 Mechanical 9 Ret 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 2 Engine 21 Ret 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SEAT León TDI Y 1 Collision 20 Ret 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 1 Collision 19 Ret 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SEAT León TDi 0 Collision 15 DNS 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC Y Fire at warm-up Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 10 20:07.643 9 25 2 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 10 +0.307 7 18 3 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 10 +0.613 8 15 4 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 10 +0.993 5 12 5 26 Stefano D'Aste Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC Y 10 +6.125 11 10 6 6 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 10 +6.705 12 8 7 11 Alex MacDowall bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 10 +7.247 3 6 8 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 10 +10.238 1 4 9 16 Alberto Cerqui ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 10 +12.663 16 2 10 9 Rickard Rydell Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 10 +14.066 6 1 11 27 Gábor Wéber Zengő Motorsport BMW 320 TC Y 10 +14.202 22 12 74 Pepe Oriola Tuenti Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 10 +14.575 4 13 14 James Nash Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 10 +18.279 13 14 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 10 +18.775 19 15 40 Andrea Barlesi SUNRED Engineering SEAT León TDI Y 10 +24.880 20 16 23 Tom Chilton Team Aon Ford Focus S2000 TC 10 +25.586 14 17 24 Isaac Tutumlu Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC Y 10 +35.129 21 18 18 Tiago Monteiro Tuenti Racing SEAT León TDi 9 Mechanical 15 19 12 Pasquale Di Sabatino bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Y 8 Mechanical 17 Ret 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC 1 Accident 10 Ret 7 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC Y 1 Mechanical 18 DNS 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil Racing SEAT León WTCC Y 0 Electrical 2 DNS 20 Darryl O'Young Special Tuning Racing SEAT León WTCC Y Fire at warm-up Bold denotes Fastest lap. Pepe Oriola started from the pitlane.

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 54 2 Robert Huff 36 3 Alain Menu 26 4 Tom Coronel 22 5 Gabriele Tarquini 20

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Stefano D'Aste 14 2 Pepe Oriola 14 3 Alex MacDowall 14 4 Franz Engstler 12 5 Norbert Michelisz 11

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 93 2 SEAT Racing Technology 49 3 BMW Customer Racing Teams 49

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

References

Results Booklet PDF at FIAWTCC.com