Crucial weekend comes for EuroCup drivers

2010. július 15. 03:41 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Two rounds have been completed by the drivers of the SEAT Leon EuroCup which means that following the upcoming event in Brands Hatch, the season will reach its half time. The miles in the UK might become crucial for championship leader Gábor Wéber and his main rival, Michael Rossi.

Brands Hatch is the first track in the 2010 calendar which is visited by the SEAT Leon EuroCup for the third time but this doesn't mean much for the frontrunners of the single brand support series of the WTCC as neither championship leader Gábor Wéber nor main rival Michael Rossi competed on the 2009 event.

Wéber however raced here back in 2008 and now he is making great efforts to arrive to the track as well prepared as possible based on his experiences and the datum his former opponent and fellow team mate Norbert Michelisz collected in 2009.

Gábor Wéber is currently leading the championship after four races but his lead is very marginal, he is only ahead of main rival Michael Rossi by a point. He scored 22 points on four races and he says that he would like to continue to score at least 11 points each weekend.

"It is in my head that it would be good to keep scoring this average of points and having 66 points at the end would likely to mean the championship title but we can't base anything on this.

"I've been on the podium three times out of four races and it was my fault that the 4th didn't work out. I don't know whether is it possible to keep this tendency or not. Of course I'll try and I'm not lining up saying it is not possible," Wéber explained.

Brands Hatch to make things clear

Only two drivers, Wéber and Michael Rossi have been able to score more than 20 points over the course of the first two rounds of the championship therefore it is not a great surprise that Wéber is counting on Rossi as the main threat for the dream of claiming the championship title.

However not Rossi is the only one who should be watched as Zolder Race 1 winner Tim Coronel will be back in Brands Hatch and several local drivers will make a one-off appearance in the UK which is expected to spice up the field.

The new entries might have their own input for the title battle as they can get into a position easily in which they take away points from one of the title contenders. Brands Hatch is a potential big gain or big loss for both Wéber and Rossi.

Knowing this the Hungarian driver is putting in as much as he can to adapt his car to the still new Michelin tyres and the stiffer rear end in order to extract the best possible performance in Brands Hatch. Wéber is helped by the datum from Norbert Michelisz's race winner car and by the experiences of Norbert Kiss who is driving in the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa with the same car that Wéber is using in the EuroCup.

"From the speculative point of view I don't think it is possible to prepare better for a weekend than having the two Norbis in this thing. The information exchange is going among the three of us, I wouldn't say that we are lost. This is not at all when we have a lot of unknown factors but of course a lot of surprises pop up when the driver goes out to the track. Or not like in Monza where everything were in place," Wéber explained.

There is no room for mistakes

It is difficult to find any drivers in the field who is more familiar with the circuit than Zengő-Dension Team's Duarte Félix da Costa. This season the Portuguese driver has often been among the frontrunners pace wise but his races have been regularly hit by various racing incidents, penalties or simply bad luck so in Brands Hatch the focus will be to avoid any potential danger.

"I like this circuit. I've raced here since 2004 in Formula BMW when I started single seaters and for sure is one of those circuits where there is no room for mistakes. Obviously the setup side is very important but hopefully we will be OK. It is just a matter of putting all together and not having problems of any kind. Be focused and the rest will come by itself. We have always been quick this year," da Costa stated.

Despite the several hits that Duarte had to accept this year he remains confident over his and the team's efforts and performance and he is ready to try to recover from the troubles that have ruined his season so far.

"I attack as always but it is difficult for me to be out of the championship. I will just try and do my best each race and see what can we achieve. The most important is not to get desperate and continue working hard with the team. I know that good results will come if we continue working hard together."

Slight improvement would bring big gains

Last year's pole sitter for Race 2 was Andrea Larini who spun just meters after the start but a pole again would place the Italian driver into a position where he could make his fortune by scoring big points for the championship.

Larini is currently 6th in the order but he is only three points behind 3rd placed driver Ricardo Bravo who won in Zolder thanks to his smart tyre choice but not sure that he will be among the frontrunners again in Brands Hatch. Therefore a good result would boost Larini to a better position in the order.

Improvement is what Imre Birizdó needs as well. The young karting talent impressed the team in Monza but in Zolder the young driver didn't find the pace that would have been required to challenge the competitors. In Brands Hatch he'll have another chance to get more experience with the SEAT Leon Supercopa car.

Photo by SEAT Sport

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