March 09 2009   Source: BMW- Munich

Race Report- WTCC Race 1: Brazil

Curitiba, Brazil, 8 March 2009 On the opening weekend of the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus (BR) was the most successful member of the BMW national teams. In the first race of the season the 25-year-old finished fifth in front of his home crowd in Curitiba (BR). In race two, he added sixth place to his tally on a wet track. His teammate, Jorg Muller (DE), was the man of the second round, in which the 39-year-old drove his BMW 320si WTCC from 21st on the grid to finish fifth.

Sergio Hernandez (ES) of BMW Team Italy-Spain and BMW Team UK's Andy Priaulx (GB) also scored championship points in the first race by finishing sixth and seventh. However, SEAT dominated proceedings at the "Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba" and celebrated two clean sweeps by claiming the top four positions. The win in race one was secured by Yvan Muller (FR), Gabriele Tarquini (IT) claimed victory in race two.

Muller's hopes for a strong result in race one ended as early as Turn 3. Running in fifth place he was hit by Chevrolet's Alain Menu (CH), who rejoined after cutting the chicane. Following this bump with Menu, Muller collided with Priaulx and had to pit with a handling problem. He went out again a few minutes later, but finished five laps down on the winner. Priaulx dropped to 19th with a damaged right front wheel, but fought his way back up to ninth.

Due to this incident, Farfus improved from seventh to fifth and eventually finished sixth. The progress of Hernandez was the best, crossing the line in seventh after starting from 11th. His teammate, Alessandro Zanardi (IT), improved from 14th to 12th. All BMW national team drivers benefited from a time penalty after the chequered flag for two drivers who had finished in front of them, thus gaining two places each. Priaulx was classified seventh, securing two points and a front-row grid position for race two alongside BMW privateer Felix Porteiro (ES) of Proteam Motorsport.

Thirty minutes before the start, a heavy thunderstorm hit the 3.685-km circuit. The race therefore got underway ten minutes late and was started behind the safety car. In these conditions, the BMW drivers running at the front were unable to defend their positions. Only Farfus and Porteiro managed to translate their promising grid positions into points. Muller, on the other hand, coped really well with the conditions and launched an impressive fight back. From 21st place he improved lap by lap, finally taking the checkered flag in fifth.