The World Touring Car Championship will now make its debut in Argentina in 2011, as had been previously announced. The FIA World Motor Sport Council today (3 November) confirmed the 2011 WTCC calendar, as well as changes to the reverse grid system.
The series had been set to visit the South American country for the first time in March, racing in Buenos Aires two weeks after its regular season opener in Curitiba, Brazil.
Zolder, which made its WTCC debut in 2010 but had been absent from the provisional 2011 calendar, has replaced the Argentinean round. The venue for the Chinese round scheduled for November is still to be announced.
The other change from the meeting is that the grid for race two will be determined by the results from qualifying. Rather than reversing the top eight from race one to set the race two grid, the top ten from Q1 will now be reversed. The race one grid will still be determined by the additional Q2 session.
The change will remove the temptation for drivers to drop back during race one to get a good grid position for race two. However, it could lead to some interesting qualifying strategies.
2011 World Touring Car calendar
20/03 Curitiba, Brazil
24/04 Zolder, Belgium**
15/05 Monza, Italy
05/06 Marrakech, Morocco
19/06 Brno, Czech Republic
03/07 Porto, Portugal*
17/07 Donington Park, United Kingdom
31/07 Oschersleben, Germany
04/09 Valencia Ricardo Tormo, Spain
23/10 Suzuka, Japan
05/11 TBA, China**
20/11 Macau**
* Subject to the homologation of the circuit
** Subject to confirmation by the ASN
