The Magny Cours weekend could not have been better for the BMW teams. Pole position and two wins was the perfect result. The winners were BMW Team Deutschland's Dirk Müller in race one and BMW Team Great Britain's Andy Priaulx in race two. This was the first win of the season for both drivers and Dirk was joined on the podium for his race by team-mate, Jörg Müller, who was second. These wins take Dirk's FIA ETCC tally of victories to six and Andy's to four. The SEAT competition evaporated in both races and so it was Alfa Romeo still being the main competition for BMW. Augusto Farfus Jr was third in both races and Gabriele Tarquini second in race two.
BMW is now back in front of the Manufacturers' Championship, leading Alfa Romeo by 80 points to 78. Gabriele Tarquini is still leading the Drivers' Championship with 40 points, but Jörg is now second on 35 points and Dirk third on 34.
Both of the winners had a good and a bad race. However, the bad races saw Dirk and Andy drive from almost the back of the field to a points-scoring situation. Dirk's comment was: "It feels good to have this first win of the year after two very tough weekends in Monza and Valencia. We had some good racing and I managed to get by Jörg by being a bit lucky. There was some oil and water on the track, which made it very slippery and, as Jörg was the first on it, I knew where to go and got the opportunity to pass. Race two was different as I felt a big impact on lap one and then had to drive back from 20th to sixth, which I really enjoyed." Andy's drama also happened on an opening lap and his comment after his win was: "I was disappointed with the first race after an incident with Frank Diefenbacher and I want to see a video to know exactly what happened. Like Dirk, I managed to come back up the field and get to 8th. Then in race two I was able to just drive away and am pleased with my overall performance this weekend. In fact the race felt like winter testing here as it was just a question of getting a rhythm, pulling out a big gap and then relaxing."
RACE 1Weather: Slightly overcast but dry - 14ºC
Race one belonged to BMW Team Deutschland with Jörg Müller and Dirk Müller getting good starts and leading the rest of the field for all of the 12 laps. The only excitement at the front came when Dirk overtook Jörg on lap eight and stayed in front to the flag. However, further down the field the action was fast and furious. On the very first lap Andy Priaulx and SEAT driver, Frank Diefenbacher, had a coming together with the BMW driver spinning off and dropping to 20th. He then had the hard task of picking his way through the field and by the end of the race was up to 8th, which assured him of pole for race two. The SEAT driver continued ahead of him until his steering rack failed on lap seven. The best placed Alfa Romeo was Augusto Farfus Jr in third with BMW Team Italy-Spain's Antonio Garcia just behind him. The Spaniard was hoping to claim the final podium position but the Alfa's acceleration stopped his progress and so he had to settle for fourth. Tom Coronel made a perfect start and was up to fifth at the end of lap one, but a broken driveshaft on lap three put him out of the race and he had to watch while Michele Bartyan in his Alfa claimed top honours in the Independents Class. The woes for SEAT continued when Rickard Rydell stopped on lap sixth with an engine problem that precluded him starting race two. It was not a good race for BMW Team Italy-Spain's Alex Zanardi who ran over debris from the Diefenbacher/Priaulx incident, spun and then visited the pits to make sure nothing had broken on the car.
RACE 2Weather: Very overcast with the threat of rain - 14ºc
Although a few spots of rain dropped as the cars were going to the grid, the race was held in the dry and it was only after the podiums that the heavens opened. Andy Priaulx was on pole and made the most of it by being in front into the first corner and staying there for the entire race. Initially Jordi Gené in the SEAT was behind him but an engine problem dropped him down the field after lap two and into retirement after lap three. Dirk Müller was involved in a first lap incident when he saw several cars flying off round him and then felt a big bang. Dirk was lucky as he was able to continue, but Antonio Garcia was not as after an incident with Fabrizio Giovanardi's Alfa Romeo he retired at the Adelaide corner. Andy's progress was helped by the fact the three Alfa Romeos of Gabriele Tarquini, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Augusto Farfus Jr were battling among themselves for most of the race. Jörg Müller had a good view of this battle as he was just behind them. He managed to pass Giovanardi on lap 11 but could do nothing to pass his Alfa team-mates. Tom Coronel made up for his race one disappointment by storming from the back of the grid to eighth, overtaking all the other Independents Trophy competitors. Kurt Mollekens, in the BMW Team Belgium Luxembourg car, was learning about the BMW 320i over the weekend and made good progress by finishing this race in seventh spot.
Results and Positions
BMW Team Deutschland - Schnitzer Motorsport No 42 - Jörg Müller (GER) Qual 1st - Race 1 - 2nd - Race 2 - 4th - 10 kilos ballastNo 43 - Dirk Müller (GER) Qual 2nd - Race 1 - 1st - Race 2 - 6th
BMW Team Great Britain - RBM No 11 - Andy Priaulx (GBR) Qual 4th - Race 1 - 8th - Race 2 - 1st
BMW Team Belgium Luxembourg - RBMNo 12 - Kurt Mollekens (NLD) Qual 13th - Race 1 - 11th - Race 2 - 7th
BMW Team Italy-Spain - Ravaglia Motorsport No 4 - Alex Zanardi (ITA) Qual 14th - Race 1 - 20th - Race 2 - 16th No 5 - Antonio Garcia (ESP) Qual 8th - Race 1 - 4th - Race 2 - DNF
BMW Privateer Teams Carly Motors - No 20 - Tom Coronel (NLD) Qual 11th - Race 1 - DNF - Race 2 - 8th Carly Motors - No 22 - Klaas Zwart (NLD) Qual 25th - Race 1 -17th - Race 2 - DNFProteam Motorsport - No 25 - Stefano D'Aste (ITA) Qual 19th - Race 1 - 10th -Race 2 - 9th Crawford Racing - No 27 - Carl Rosenblad (SWE) Qual 20th - Race 1 - 12th - Race 2 - 11th
Race 1 - 12 laps1. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 14.381s2. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 15.152s3. Augusto Farfus Jr (BRA/Alfa Romeo 22m 23.539s4. Antonio Garcia (ESP/BMW 320i) 22m 24.739s5. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 25.411s6. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 33.519s7. Jordi Gené (ESP/SEAT) 22m 34.171s8. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW 320i) 22m 34.502s
Race 2 - 12 laps1. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW 320i) 22m 14.529s2. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 19.530s3. Augusto Farfus Jr (BRA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 20.765s4. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 23.801s5. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 24.679s6. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 26.711s.7. Kurt Mollekens (BEL/BMW 320i) 22m 29.020s8. Tom Coronel (NLD/BMW 320i) 22m 31.244s
Championship PositionsDrivers1. Tarquini 402. Müller J 353. Müller D 344. Giovanardi 335. Priaulx 316. Farfus 247. Garcia 108. Coronel 99. Diefenbacher 610 Gené 411. Tavano 312. Mollekens 213. Zanardi 113. D'Aste 113. Rangoni 1
Manufacturers1. BMW 802. Alfa Romeo 783. SEAT 10
Michelin Independents Trophy1. Coronel 442. D'Aste 413. Balzan 314. Tavano 235. Bartyan 216. Rosenblad 127. Ruokonen 128. Asch 119. Harrison 1010. Rangoni 911. Klenke 812. Zwart P 713. Grunert 414. Zwart K 1
