The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia was the fourth round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the maiden running of the

FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia The FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia, currently the FIA WTCR Race of Slovakia, is a former round of the World Touring Car Championship, currently of the World Touring Car Cup, held at the Automotodróm Slovakia Ring, in the village of Orechová Potôň, ...

. It was held on 29 April 2012 at the

Automotodróm Slovakia Ring Automotodróm Slovakia Ring is a motor racing circuit in Orechová Potôň, Dunajská Streda District in Slovakia, approximately away from Bratislava Airport. It was built between 2008 and 2009. Description New Zealand race car driver M ...

Orechová Potôň Orechová Potôň ( hu, Diósförgepatony, ) is a village and municipality in the Dunajská Streda District in the Trnava Region of south-west Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1250. Until the end of Worl ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. The first race was won by

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He ...

for

Lukoil Racing Team Lukoil Racing team is the leading Russian motorsport organization; its operations including management, driver training and support, engineering expertise and a quality technical environment, which enables continuous development, building, testing ...

and the second race was won by

Robert Huff Robert Peter "Rob" Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British professional racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) driving for Zengő Motorsport. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the ...

for

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

Background

came to

on the back of winning the first six races of the season, with

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969 in Altkirch, Haut-Rhin) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 with Chevro ...

leading the championship 24 points ahead of

Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twice ...

Pepe Oriola Josep "Pepe" Oriola Vila (born 9 July 1994) is a Spanish racing driver. He became the youngest driver to race in the World Touring Car Championship when he competed in the 2011 season. Oriola is not only the youngest driver to start a WTCC race ...

was leading the

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

Independents' Trophy. Gábor Wéber returned with

Zengő Motorsport Zengő Motorsport is a Hungarian motor racing team founded by Zoltán Zengő. They currently compete in the World Touring Car Cup and others TCR championships. The team also used to compete in the SEAT León Eurocup, where they won driver's titl ...

after missing the previous round in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

due to cost concerns.

Isaac Tutumlu Isaac Tutumlu López (born 5 July 1985) is a Spanish racing driver. He currently races in the ADAC GT MASTERS, having formerly raced in the World Touring Car Championship, International GT Open, Porsche Supercup, Daytona 24 Hours and others. R ...

sat out the Race of Slovakia after his

Proteam Racing Proteam Motorsport is an Italian auto racing team based in Arezzo that was set up by former driver Valmiro Presenzini in 1997. They are best known for their efforts in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Their time in the WTCC has seen them be ...

team failed to repair his car in time after damage was sustained in

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

. SUNRED Engineering's Andrea Barlesi was unable to continue in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...

after Marrakech with his budget having run out.

Report

Free practice

Oriola was the quickest driver in the opening practice session on Friday, ahead of the Lukoil

SEAT León The SEAT León (), also spelled Leon in some other languages (named after the city of León, which also means "Lion" in Spanish), is a hatchback compact car built by the Spanish car manufacturer SEAT since October 1999.ETKA The first two León ...

of Tarquini and the Team Aon

Ford Focus The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by Ford Motor Company since 1998. It was created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The ...

of James Nash. The session was briefly red flagged when the engine in

Tiago Monteiro Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro (; born 24 July 1976) is a Portuguese professional racing driver currently competing in the World Touring Car Cup, driving a Honda Civic TCR for Engstler Motorsport. He competed in Formula One between 2005 an ...

's León cut out. It was Chevrolet's turn to top the times in the second free practice sessions, with Menu topping the times ahead of Yvan Muller. After the session had ended, Tarquini beached his car in the gravel having finished the session tenth fastest.

Qualifying

Norbert Michelisz Norbert Michelisz (born 8 August 1984) is a Hungarian auto racing driver and the 2019 winner of the World Touring Car Cup. Career Early career Michelisz was the 2006 Hungarian Suzuki Swift Cup champion, and in 2007 he won the Hungarian Ren ...

took his first WTCC pole position to beat the Lukoil Racing Team drivers of

Aleksei Dudukalo Aleksey Nikolayevich Dudukalo ( rus, Алексе́й Никола́евич Дудука́ло, p=ɐlʲɪˈksej nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ dʊdʊˈkalə; born 6 October 1976, in Moscow) is a Russian auto racing driver. He raced in the World Touring ...

in second and Tarquini in third. A red flag towards the end of Q1 for

Franz Engstler Franz Engstler (born 25 July 1961) is a German auto racing driver. Racing career Born in Kempten im Allgäu, Engstler started racing in the European Hillclimbing Championship and the German Long Distance Cup, which he won. From 1988 he competed ...

's stranded

BMW 320 TC The BMW 320 TC is a racing car built under Super 2000 specifications, which competed in the FIA World Touring Car Championship from 2011 to 2014. The car came into use as a customer car, after BMW ended their WTCC factory program at the end of th ...

prevented

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 race in 1997, th ...

from progressing into the second session. Nash, who had qualified a career best fourth, failed a ride-height check in post-qualifying scrutineering and was dropped ten places on the grid for both races.

Warm-up

Muller led the Sunday morning warm-up session with Nash second, Huff third and Oriola fourth.

Race one

Michelisz led into the first corner but contact with second placed Tarquini would drop him down the order, and further contact with Muller dropped him down to sixth and earned the Chevrolet driver a drive-through penalty. Oriola had briefly climbed into second place before a puncture and the subsequent trip into the gravel ended his challenge. Tarquini led a Lukoil Racing Team 1-2 finish the chequered flag with Menu third for Chevrolet. Dudukalo was the winning driver in the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Race two

Stefano D'Aste started on the reversed grid pole and led down into turn one. The Chevrolet trio and Tarquini took the lead when the

Wiechers-Sport Wiechers-Sport is a German auto racing team which is based in Nienburg. The team was first established in 1999, competing in German touring cars. The team currently competes in the World Touring Car Championship. World Touring Car Championship B ...

driver ran wide. Dudukalo was issued with a drive through penalty for failing to have all four wheels on his car on the ground when the five-minute board was shown before the race. Huff led Muller and Menu until Tarquini took his third place.

ROAL Motorsport ROAL Motorsport (previously known as Ravaglia Motorsport) is an Italian auto racing team, which operated the BMW Team Italy-Spain team in the World Touring Car Championship, and currently competes as BMW Team Italia in the Italian GT Championshi ...

also overtook Menu before the Swiss retired with a broken rim. Huff took his first win of the year ahead of Muller and Tarquini, with Oriola the winner in the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Results

Qualifying

*Bold denotes ''Pole position'' for second race. : — James Nash received a ten place grid penalty for failing a post-qualifying ride height check. : — Despite not having classified in qualifying, Tom Boardman was allowed to start at the back of the grid for both races.

Race 1

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Race 2

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Standings after the round

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings ;Manufacturers' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

References

External links

{{WTCC race, Name_of_race = FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia , Year_of_race = 2012 , Previous_race_in_season = 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco , Next_race_in_season =

2012 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary The 2012 FIA WTCC Race of Hungary was the fifth round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Hungary. It was held on 6 May 2012 at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród near Budapest, Hungary. The ...

, Previous_year's_race = ''none'' , Next_year's_race =

2013 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia The 2013 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia was the third round of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia. It was held on 28 April 2013 at the Automotodróm Slovakia Ring in Orechová Potôň, ...

Race of Slovakia FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia