Two weeks on from the first ever Race of Hungary, the World Touring Car Championship returns to more familiar ground in the nearby Czech Republic this weekend for the fifth round of the season at Brno.
The series has visited the circuit every year since 2006. BMW have enjoyed a strong record there, with seven wins from the ten races so far. ROAL Motorsport have been particularly strong, taking four wins under the BMW Italy/Spain banner. Their current driver Tom Coronel will hope to repeat that form this time round.
Chevrolet are on top of both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ standings once again, with Rob Huff leading teammate and defending champion Yvan Muller by 31 points, with Alain Menu a further 15 points behind.
Brno sees Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro adopt the 1.6 litre turbo engine for their SUNRED Leons, after teammates Fredy Barth, Pepe Oriola and Michel Nykjaer gave the powerplant its debut in Hungary. The team’s sixth driver, Aleksei Dudukalo, will continue to drive the turbodiesel for this weekend at least.
Meanwhile, Polestar will introduce their new 1.6 litre turbo engine into their Volvo C30, which the team hope will allow driver Robert Dahlgren to be more competitive.
The cars will take to the track for the first time on Saturday morning for two free practice sessions ahead of qualifying. The two races will take place at 13:05 and 15:15 local time (that’s 12:05 and 14:15 BST).
