The 2011 FIA WTCC Race of Japan was the tenth round of the 2011 World Touring Car Championship season and the fourth running of the FIA WTCC Race of Japan. It was held on 23 October 2011 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka City, Japan.

The first race was won by Alain Menu of Chevrolet RML while Michel Nykjær finished on the podium for the first time in World Touring Car Championship. The second race was won by Tom Coronel of ROAL Motorsport.

Background Coming into the first Asian round of the season, Yvan Muller was leading the world drivers' championship. Kristian Poulsen was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Chevrolet RML added a fourth Chevrolet Cruze for the local rally driver Toshi Arai. Formula D driver Charles Ng joined Liqui Moly Team Engstler in a BMW 320si while Hiroki Yoshimoto joined SUNRED Engineering to drive one of their SUNRED SR León 1.6Ts. Colin Turkington returned to Wiechers-Sport having last raced for them at the Race of UK. Masaki Kano drove for DeTeam KK Motorsport in their BMW 320 TC.

Report

Testing and free practice Menu led Friday's test session having displaced Polestar Racing's Robert Dahlgren late on. Robert Huff, who had lost his championship lead at the last round was third with Tiago Monteiro separating him from championship leader Muller. Darryl O'Young in the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet was the quickest independent driver when he ended the session ninth. The session had been stopped five minutes in when Norbert Michelisz went off the circuit.

Huff topped the wet first practice session on Saturday morning. Fabio Fabiani and Kano were black flagged for not having their headlights switched on.

The track was drying in free practice two as Menu set the fastest time, he led a Chevrolet 1–2–3 with Muller second and Huff third. Fredy Barth was the top independent driver in fourth.

Qualifying Qualifying had started with a threat of rain as Menu took pole position in qualifying with championship leading team–mate Muller second. The first session was stopped twice, firstly when Proteam Racing's Mehdi Bennani got stuck in the gravel at the final corner and then again when Pepe Oriola also went off at the final corner and crashed into the wall. O'Young finished the first session tenth and therefore took the reversed grid pole position for race two where he would be joined on the front row by Coronel. Yukinori Taniguchi was 12th at the end of the session and was the quickest local driver.

All the drivers taking part in the second session set their best times in their early runs. At the end of Q2 Menu was ahead of Muller and Dahlgren. Nykjær was the best placed independent driver in seventh.

Fabiani had again failed to get within 107% of the fastest Q1 time but was not allowed to start the races after an altercation with the stewards as well as having incurred a number of other penalties already. Oriola required an engine change and would therefore take a five–place grid drop in race one while Arai failed to report to scrutineering during Q1 so his qualifying times were removed.

Warm-Up Pole sitter Menu led the warm–up session before the first race, the session came to a close early when Yoshimoto ended up in the gravel.

Race One

Menu started from pole position while Dahlgren behind was tagged by Nykjær which saw the Volvo driver spin and come back across the track at the first corner as the rest of the field passed. Coronel and Tarquini then came together which caught out Tiago Monteiro, Javier Villa, Barth and Yoshimoto; Tarquini and Villa were able to continue. The safety car was brought out while the stranded cars were removed, when the race resumed on lap seven it was Muller leading from Menu and Huff. The following lap Menu was able to make a successful pass for the lead, two laps later Muller then made a mistake and dropped behind Huff and Nykjær. Aleksei Dudukalo had a narrow escape when he spun on the exit of the final corner and came close to hitting the pit wall while team–mate Tarquini had recovered to ninth place after his first lap collision. At the end of the race, Menu led a Chevrolet 1–2 with Huff while Nykjær claimed his first outright podium result in third and the independents' victory with it. Muller was fourth while Taniguchi claimed his best result in the championship by finishing seventh behind Turkington. Bennani in eighth resisted a late charge from Tarquini.

Race Two

Rain had started to fall before the start of the race. O'Young started on pole position but he was passed straight away by Coronel as O'Young was tapped by Tarquini and spun. Dahlgren had got through to fourth at the expense of Menu while Muller and Huff were closing in on Coronel. Tarquini was served with a drive–through penalty on lap five for the collision with O'Young, he went into the pits for his penalty before retiring on lap twelve. Having previously attempted a pass on Huff for third, Dahlgren was re–passed by Menu as his Volvo C30 Drive was plagued by a misfiring engine. Coronel beat Muller to the line by inches, Huff was third and Menu was fourth. Dahlgren ended up fifth while Nykjær in sixth was the Yokohama Trophy victor once again.

Results

Qualifying Name Team Car Q1 Q2 1 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 53.748 53.443 2 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 53.893 53.492 3 30 Robert Dahlgren Polestar Racing Volvo C30 Drive 53.760 53.512 4 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 53.937 53.520 5 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 53.943 53.601 6 18 Tiago Monteiro SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6T 53.871 53.798 7 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 53.725 53.811 8 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6T 53.734 53.824 9 9 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 53.956 53.902 10 29 Colin Turkington Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 53.672 54.339 11 20 Javier Villa Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 54.006 12 10 Yukinori Taniguchi bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 54.070 13 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team BMW 320 TCY 54.073 14 11 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 54.126 15 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 54.127 16 12 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 54.219 17 7 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 54.411 18 88 Hiroki Yoshimoto SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 54.466 19 74 Pepe Oriola SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 54.730 20 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 55.002 21 51 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 55.356 22 68 Masaki Kano DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320 TCY 55.551 EX 31 Toshi Arai Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T Excluded107% time: 57.429 – 21 Fabio Fabiani Proteam Racing BMW 320siY 58.023 Bold denotes Pole position for second race.

— Arai failed to report to the weighbridge during qualifying and so his times from the session were deleted.

Race 1 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25 25:50.919 1 25 2 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25 +3.133 4 18 3 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 25 +3.766 7 15 4 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25 +4.441 2 12 5 11 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 25 +4.851 14 10 6 29 Colin Turkington Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 25 +8.601 10 8 7 10 Yukinori Taniguchi bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 25 +13.472 12 6 8 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 25 +13.730 19 4 9 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6T 25 +14.045 8 2 10 12 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 25 +15.950 16 1 11 9 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 25 +20.833 9 12 68 Masaki Kano DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320 TCY 25 +25.889 20 13 31 Toshi Arai Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 25 +26.767 21 14 51 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 25 +39.298 23 15 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team BMW 320 TCY 25 +44.478 13 16 20 Javier Villa Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 25 +50.554 11 17 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 25 +1:16.031 15 18 74 Pepe Oriola SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 20 +5 Laps 22 Ret 88 Hiroki Yoshimoto SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 11 Race incident 18 NC 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 5 +20 Laps 5 Ret 7 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 2 Race incident 17 Ret 30 Robert Dahlgren Polestar Racing Volvo C30 Drive 0 Race incident 3 Ret 18 Tiago Monteiro SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6T 0 Race incident 6 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Race 2 Name Team Car Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 23 21:10.854 2 25 2 1 Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 23 +0.558 4 18 3 2 Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 23 +0.840 3 15 4 8 Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 23 +1.576 6 12 5 30 Robert Dahlgren Polestar Racing Volvo C30 Drive 23 +2.057 5 10 6 17 Michel Nykjær SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 23 +7.397 8 8 7 29 Colin Turkington Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TCY 23 +7.730 9 6 8 20 Javier Villa Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 23 +8.292 10 4 9 5 Norbert Michelisz Zengő-Dension Team BMW 320 TCY 23 +8.606 12 2 10 11 Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 23 +8.901 13 1 11 12 Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TCY 23 +9.477 15 12 4 Aleksei Dudukalo Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 23 +15.744 14 13 74 Pepe Oriola SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 23 +22.668 17 14 10 Yukinori Taniguchi bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 23 +23.263 11 15 31 Toshi Arai Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 23 +23.541 21 16 68 Masaki Kano DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320 TCY 23 +25.577 20 17 88 Hiroki Yoshimoto SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 23 +26.926 16 18 25 Mehdi Bennani Proteam Racing BMW 320 TCY 23 +33.610 18 19 51 Charles Ng Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320siY 23 +34.092 19 Ret 3 Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil-SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6T 11 Withdrew 7 Ret 9 Darryl O'Young bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6TY 1 Race incident 1 DNS 18 Tiago Monteiro SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6T 0 Did not start 22 DNS 7 Fredy Barth SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6TY 0 Did not start 23 Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Standings after the event

Drivers' Championship standings PosDriver Points 1 Yvan Muller363 2 Robert Huff350 3 Alain Menu290 4 Tom Coronel183 5 Gabriele Tarquini159

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Kristian Poulsen 111 2 Norbert Michelisz 100 3 3 Michel Nykjær 96 1 4 Franz Engstler 88 1 5 Javier Villa 87

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 810 2 BMW Customer Racing Teams 485 3 SR Customer Racing 435 4 Volvo Polestar Evaluation Team 138

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

References

External links World Touring Car Championship official website