The Sébastien Loeb Racing team, used to travelling the world, knows how to adapt quickly and well. They faced a doubly difficult challenge in Ningbo, China, for the seventh event of the World Touring Car Championship: a new track, two hundred kilometres south of Shanghai, has to be discovered, and apocalyptic weather conditions had to be contended with. Neither stopped John Filippi, who emerged sixth from the first race and third in the WTCC Trophy, from signing his best result in the Championship so far, proof of his constant progress behind the wheel of his Alsatian Citroën C-Élysée. Tom Chilton, for his part, was eliminated in the first race after lack of visibility led to a collision, but came back in force for the second. The British driver, then fifth in the standings, was declared winner of the WTCC Trophy after the race, on a copiously flooded and impractical track, was stopped. Meanwhile, the third representative of the Soultz-sous-Forêts team, Mehdi Bennani, was out of luck. He was pushed off the track by a competitor in the first race, and the second was equally laborious.
“I really enjoyed the new Ningbo international speed park race track”, Tom Chilton enthused, “The team made great progress with the wet setup for the car, as well as my driving, over the course of the weekend. For lack of sufficient visibility, Huff and I came together fighting for the same piece of tarmac in the first race, but the speedy work of the Sébastien Loeb Racing team fixed the damage in only fifteen minutes, allowing me to be on the start line of the second race. This now makes me first overall in the WTCC Trophy, and they deserve the credit so I hope they enjoyed the bottle of champagne I left them!”
“I had good memories of my previous races in China, but this weekend would better be forgotten”, regretted Mehdi Bennani. “In spite of all the team’s efforts, we never managed to find the setup that would work in the qualifying heats, and that later prevented us from fighting in the races properly. Björk’s driving error in the first race, which caused my abandon, also didn’t help. This being said, I’m already focusing on the next meeting in Japan, with the explicit aim of regaining control of the Championship.”
“Discovering the new Ningbo track was not an easy task, especially combined with the weather,” analysed Dominique Heintz, co-founder of the team with Sébastien Loeb. “But the team once more proved its ability to adapt, to allow our drivers and our Citroën C-Élysée to play the leading roles. Of course, I regret Mehdi’s off weekend, but at the same time I trust in his capacity to bounce back in the next event. I’m very happy with John’s sixth place, which rewards the progress he’s made since the start of the season, as well as Tom’s rise to the top in the WTCC Trophy.”
The next event for the Sébastien Loeb Racing team will be the Japanese WTCC meeting on the Motegi track, from the 27th to the 29th of October.
RESULTS:
RACE 1: 1. E. Guerrieri, 2. Y. Ehrlacher, 3. N. Catsburg … 6. J. Filippi (Citroën C-Élysée WTCC) (3e WTCC Trophy), etc. // M. Bennani et T. Chilton, abandons.
RACE 2: 1. N. Girolami, 2. N. Michelisz, 3. T. Björk, … 5. T. Chilton (Citroën C-Élysée WTCC) (1er WTCC Trophy), … 8. J. Filippi (Citroën C-Élysée WTCC) (3e WTCC Trophy), … 16. M. Bennani (Citroën C-Élysée WTCC) (10e WTCC Trophy), etc.
Drivers’ Championship: 1. T. Björk 200,5 pts, 2. T. Monteiro 200, 3. N. Michelisz 198,5 … 5. M. Bennani 164, 6. T. Chilton 153,5 … 12. J. Filippi 25, etc.
WTCC Drivers’ Trophy: 1. T. Chilton 92 pts, 2. R. Huff 88, 3. M. Bennani 87, … 7. J. Filippi 40, etc.
WTCC Teams Trophy: 1. Sébastien Loeb Racing 122 pts, 2. Campos Racing 87, 3. Münnich Motorsport 82, etc.