Despite driving the race of his life in Spain this weekend, Britain’s Andy Priaulx has been edged out of the FIA World Touring Car Championship lead.
Priaulx, from Guernsey, struggled with success ballast* in qualifying and only managed 16th on the grid for Sunday’s first race in Valencia. The 32-year-old launched himself off the line but was involved in an incident with Gabriele Tarquini on the first lap, which tipped him off the track collecting fellow Brit Rob Huff en route.
The misfortune meant the reigning champion had to start from the 26th place for race two but Priaulx outclassed one of the most experienced motorsport fields to score one point, finishing eighth.
“I’m on a huge high at the moment,” said Priaulx. “I was driving my heart out in that second race. I scored one point which I think could be very important and I don’t have too much weight going into Macau. I feel really positive going into Macau now, I feel ‘racey’!
“Regarding the incident in race one, I thought that I had passed Tarquini and turned into the corner. He didn’t want to go onto the grass and I don’t blame him. He can’t blame me for what happened either, it certainly wasn’t intentional.”
James Thompson’s championship hopes are looking increasingly slim after the SEAT driver failed to score for the sixth race in a row. Thompson, from Harrogate, had been a strong contender at the beginning of the season, leading the championship after a great performance in South America but could only manage 9th and 12th in this weekend’s racing.
"I was competitive in qualifying, but then we had to change the engine after the warm-up and so I had to start seventeenth,” said the 32-year-old two-times British Touring Car Champion. “I think I did a creditable job in getting up to ninth, just missing out on eighth on the last lap.
“Starting ninth wasn’t too bad for the second race, but then [Alex] Zanardi drove me off the track. I got going again and got past him again and he drove me off the track for the second time.
“What can you do against that kind of driving? It’s outrageous. If you reflect on the last three race meetings, I was leading going to Brno and I’ve scored zero points from six races. It’s pretty hard to believe and I’m pretty devastated.”
After amassing an impressive 14 points from Valencia, including victory in race one, Brazilian-ace Augusto Farfus Jr. now leads the WTCC by one point from Priaulx going into the last round at Macau, China, on November 18th / 19th.
