Brno Report

BMW advantage too great in Brno

The rear wheel drive of the BMW's proved too much of an advantage for the front wheel drive SEAT Leon's in the latest rounds of the WTCC Independents Championship in Brno, Czech Republic last weekend. Despite this Tom scored points in both races to strengthen his 5th place in the Championship, the highest placed driver in their first WTCC season.

The first 30 minute practice was run in wet conditions, the intensity of the rain leaving a couple of areas of the track with water running across it, making learning the 5.4km track difficult.

The second practice session again started wet, but it was also clear that a dry line would appear towards the end of the 30 minutes. After a couple of laps on the treaded wet tyres, Tom was one of the first to pit for slicks, keen to make the most of the drying track. Unfortunately a technical problem with the onboard air-jack system prevented the team from making their usual efficient tyre change, and they had to first effect repairs. Although this was completed Tom missed being allowed out of the pit lane by 1 second, which would have enabled him to complete 2 valuable laps in the dry.

So for qualifying Tom would experiance the track in dry conditions for the first time, and having the opportunity for just two runs during the 20 minute session in was going to be a challenge to push for Independents pole. A strong effort, with a car that didn't quite have the balance he would have liked, ensured that he qualified well in touch with the other Independent SEAT Leon's.

The rolling start of Race 1 had Tom well placed going into the first corner, but he was hit in the back by a BMW, which delayed him a little. Tom was able to regain the lost ground during an early Safety Car period, and was soon able to pass Marin Colak, but had to work hard to catch the BMW of Stefano D'Aste, which he eventually passed, to secure 5th place in the Independents and 13th overall.

The start of Race 2 was a slightly fraught affair, with a couple of the fast starting factory BMW's coming from the back of the grid, Tom suffering some damage to his steering that affected the cars handling. Despite this it took the works SEAT Leon TDi of Jordi Gene a couple of laps to get past into Turn 1, but with Tom having to run wide onto the dirty side of the track, it also allowed the two Chevrolets of Robert Huff and Nicola Larini through. This delay causing the Lancashire driver to lose touch with the cars he was racing in front of him, and dropping him into a battle with recent Le Mans 24 Hour winner Kristian Poulsen's BMW. There was some minor contact as Poulsen dived up the inside from a long way back into Turn 8 on lap 7, but Tom held the slide and the place.

Next race is the Portugese street circuit at Porto on 5th July, which should be more suited to the SEAT Leon.