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| NICOLA LARINI SAVES ONE POINT; HUFF AND MENU UNLUCKY |
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| Record 68,000 Spectators Watch Race Of France |
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| MAGNY COURS, April 30th, 2006 — Nicola Larini scored a single point for Chevrolet in today's third and fourth rounds of the 2006 World Touring Car Championship in Magny Cours. Rob Huff looked set to finish in the points in race two, but gearbox woes decided otherwise, while Alain Menu became the innocent victim of other drivers' accidents, despite having a perfect car. |
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| As predicted yesterday, all three Chevrolets drove strongest in the second half of the first race, but the leaders proved uncatchable in an otherwise processional race. Rob Huff finished ninth, just outside the points, setting his fastest race lap on the penultimate lap. “I had a good start, passing Alain while getting away,” he said. “Then Yvan Muller locked up under braking and hit me from behind with a right big smack. I thought he would give me some room coming out of the corner, but he just kept pushing me into the grass. But my car was better so I could pass him again at the hairpin. Then I went on to pass Nicola in one of the chicanes. My car was set up softer than his, so I could ride the kerbs better than him, which is how I could pass him.” Huff started race two in ninth, a very good position to score points, considering the reversed grid and the usual melee at the start of the second race. By lap 4, Rob ran in 7th but then got passed by Terting and finally succumbed to a fourth gear going AWOL when shifting down. He still brought his car home in ninth. |
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| Finishing two places behind Huff in the first race was Nicola Larini, who complained of a lack of front end grip throughout the race. “In all the practice sessions I had oversteer, so we balanced out the car for that. In this morning's warm up the car felt perfect, but in the race I had no front grip at all. In the fast corners I actually had to lift, otherwise I would have understeered myself off the track.” But Larini made up for that in the second race, by scoring a point finishing eighth, albeit helped by Huff's late race problems. |
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| Alain Menu, the only Chevrolet driver carrying ballast weight, had a bad race and a good race, but finished way off the points in both cases. “In the first race I had understeer going into the corners and oversteer coming out of them. At one point I actually went off having just passed Rangoni on the dirty side of the track. The car felt very nervous, so maybe we'd set the springs a bit too stiff. For the second race we dropped the rear ride height and stiffened the roll bar and then the car was absolutely perfect.” Unfortunately, Alain would have little joy in the second race as he got caught up in other drivers' accidents not once, but twice, dropping him well outside the top 20. He nevertheless proved the excellent chassis characteristics of the Chevrolet by climbing back up to 13th at the finish. “The result doesn't show it, but the car was actually perfect in the second race,” Menu said. “Without the extra weight I'm sure it will be fun at the next races in Brands Hatch.” |
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| Chevrolet Europe's Motorsport Manager, Eric Nève was nevertheless pleased with today's races. ”Magny Cours, like Monza, is not your typical touring car track, certainly not for front wheel drive cars like ours. We qualified where we had targeted to be and we brought one car home in the points. The accident at the start of the second race cost Rob and Nicola lots of time and a few places, if not we would certainly have finished higher up. But we are making steady progress and I'm confident that we will be in better shape at the next races in Brands Hatch and Oschersleben.” |
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| > | Monza Italy (01 - 02 April) |
| > | Magny Cours France (29 - 30 April) |
| > | Brands Hatch Great Britain (20 - 21 May) |
| > | Oschersleben Germany (03 - 04 June) |
| > | Curitiba Brazil (01 - 02 July) |
| > | Puebla Mexico (29 - 30 July) |
| > | Brno Czech Republic (02 - 03 September) |
| > | Istanbul Turkey (23 - 24 September) |
| > | Valencia Spain (07 - 08 October) |
| > | Macau Macau (18 - 19 November) |
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