The 2009 FIA WTCC Race of France was the fourth round of the

2009 World Touring Car Championship season The 2009 World Touring Car Championship season was the sixth Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA World Touring Car Championship season, the fifth since its 2005 return. It began on 8 March, and ended on 22 November, after twenty-fou ...

and the fifth running of the

FIA WTCC Race of France The FIA WTCR Race of France is a round of the World Touring Car Cup which was held at the Circuit Pau-Arnos in 2021 and at the Circuit de Pau-Ville in 2022. It was previously held at the Circuit Paul Ricard and the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours. ...

. It was held on 17 May 2009 at the temporary Circuit de Pau street circuit in Pau,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was the headline event of the 2009

Pau Grand Prix The Pau Grand Prix () is a motor race held in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of southwestern France. The French Grand Prix was held at Pau in 1930, leading to the annual Pau Grand Prix being inaugurated in 1933. It was not r ...

. Both races were won by

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

with

Robert Huff Robert "Rob" Peter Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British racing driver currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the 2020 Scandinavi ...

winning race one and

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 twic ...

winning race two. The second race was notable for a collision between race leader

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 ...

and the safety car at the end of the first lap.

Background

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

had established an outright lead in the drivers' championship after the previous round in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, twelve points clear of

SEAT Sport Cupra Racing, formerly known as SEAT Sport, is the high-performance motorsport subsidiary of the Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT, founded in 1985, succeeding the "SEAT Special Vehicles department" which had been formed in 1971 with the missi ...

teammate

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and , and World Touring Car from to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in with SEAT; ...

Félix Porteiro Félix Porteiro Pérez (born 26 August 1983 in Castellón, Spain) is a Spanish racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series in 2006, his best finish was 6th (was second on the road at Silverstone, but a steering rack irregularity caused him to be dis ...

was leading the

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Independents' Trophy.

SUNRED Engineering Sunred (short for ''Sun Race Engineering Development S.L.'') is a Spanish-based auto racing team and constructor. They are best known for competing in the World Touring Car Championship. Racing History While in the past Sunred had participated i ...

expanded to three cars for the Pau event,

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

was joined by Tom Boardman who returned after missing the previous round and former

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...

driver

Éric Cayrolle Éric Cayrolle (born 27 August 1962 in Pau) is a French auto racing driver. Racing career He is a three-time champion of the French Supertouring Championship, winning for three consecutive years between 1996 and 1998. Prior to this he compete ...

. With both

George Tanev George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgi ...

and

Vito Postiglione Vito Postiglione (born 28 February 1977 in Potenza) is an Italian racing driver. Racing career Postiglione won the Italian Renault Mégane Winter Trophy in 1998. He then finished runner-up in the main series in 1999. He went one better, winnin ...

being forced to miss the round, Scuderia Proteam Motorsport ran just one car for independents' championship leader Porteiro. Local French GT Championship regular

Laurent Cazenave Laurent Cazenave (born 25 April 1978, in Pau) is a French auto racing driver. In 1997 he finished third in Class B of the French Formula Ford Championship. From there he switched to saloon car racing in 1999, with two years in the French Super Pr ...

joined

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

for the weekend alongside full-time driver

Stefano D'Aste Stefano D'Aste (born 26 February 1974 in Genoa) is an Italian auto racing driver. His early racing career included competing on motorcycles and the Monza International Rally. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2004 (wh ...

Report

Free practice

Jörg Müller Jörg Müller (, ; born 3 September 1969) is a Dutch-born German BMW factory driver. Racing career Born in Kerkrade, Netherlands, Müller won the titles in 1989 German Formula Opel Lotus Challenge and in 1989 European Formula Ford 1600. Th ...

was fastest in the first practice session,

Augusto Farfus Augusto Celestino Farfus dos Santos Jr. (born 3 September 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco. Early years Born in Curitiba, Farfus first tasted racing in minibike races and wo ...

was second and Yvan Muller was third.

was the fastest

driver in sixth. The petrol

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

cars were mainly faster than the

run diesel cars.

Marin Čolak Marin Čolak (born 4 March 1984 in Zagreb) is a Croatian auto racing driver. Career Early years He started racing in karting with much of his young career was spent in Germany, including Formula Renault 2.0 Germany and the German SEAT Leon Cupra ...

, Coronel and Boardman finished the session seventh, eighth and ninth ahead of

Jordi Gené Jordi Gené Guerrero (born 5 December 1970) is a racing driver who competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005 and 2010. His younger brother, Marc is also an ex-racing driver and is currently a Brand Ambassador for the Scuderia ...

Tiago Monteiro Tiago Vagaroso da Costa Monteiro (; born 24 July 1976) is a Portuguese professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 2005 and 2006 for the Jordan Grand Prix, Midland and Spyker MF1 teams – all different iterations of the s ...

and

Rickard Rydell John Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car ...

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

were quickest once again in free practice two,

Andy Priaulx Andrew Graham Priaulx, Order of the British Empire, MBE ( born 7 August 1974) is a British people, British racing driver from Guernsey. In 2019 he raced for Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK in the FIA World Endurance Championship, ...

was quickest for

BMW Team UK Racing Bart Mampaey (formerly Juma Racing) is a racing team based in Mechelen, Belgium that runs the BMW Team RBM operation in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. Previously the team had been racing in the European Touring Car Championship and World ...

. He was ahead of morning pacesetters Müller and Farfus while Coronel in fourth was the fastest independent. Menu was fifth for Chevrolet and the fastest factory SEAT was Rydell fourteenth, one place behind the

Lada LadaAccording to various sources, the name Lada is derived from a Russian word for Viking longships (). (, , marketed as LADAFrom 2004 onwards Lada is marketed worldwide, including in Russia, using the all-capitals brand name written in Latin sc ...

of Jaap van Lagen.

Qualifying

Priaulx claimed his first pole position since the 2006 Guia Race of Macau. The BMW Team UK man was among the front runners during both practice sessions and qualifying and put in a time of 1:22.462 in Q2. He demoted BMW teammate Farfus by just 11 thousandths of a second. Coronel defied odds in taking part in Q2 after the front of his car was severely damaged in Q1. However, attention from his team and he lined up in third place. While it was a BMW at the top of the timesheet for the majority of the Q1, on the last lap Huff and Chevrolet stormed through with a 1:22.900 stealing the quickest time away from Priaulx by 0.042 of a second. Jörg Müller (1:22.960) and Farfus (1:23.201) went into Q2 as third and fourth best. Coronel was sitting fifth at the end of Q1. However, at this time his team was repairing his car for Q2 after he incurred damage with seven minutes remaining. Leading man Huff's teammates Larini and Menu both made the cut after claiming the sixth and seventh best times. Independent drivers Porteiro and Engstler along with Sergio Hernández made up the top ten, narrowly denying

Alessandro Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

and D’Aste progression into Q2. All the five SEAT Sport turbodiesel cars remained out of the Q2 for the first time. In Q2, Coronel was the man to beat for the opening half of the session after he clocked a 1:22.917. However, Farfus knocked the Dutchman off provisional pole by a sturdy four tenths of a second. The Brazilian's time of 1:22.473 seemed good enough to set him up at the front for Race 1 until Priaulx bettered it by just 0.011 seconds. Coronel's time secured third place on the grid alongside Jörg Müller. A trio of Chevrolets followed from fifth to seventh; Huff (1:23.097), Menu (1:23.128) and Larini (1:23.282).http://www.fiawtcc.com/2009/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.4.200951795641.pdf Qualifying Report

Warm-Up

Pole sitter Farfus was fastest in the warm–up session on Sunday morning with Jörg Müller second and Priaulx third.

Race One

Huff took his second win in three races for Chevrolet. The Briton got a great start from third and overtook Farfus who hit some oil and went wide at Pont Oscar on lap 2. Huff led the pack for the remaining 17 laps with Farfus and Jörg Müller having to settle for second and third despite applying constant pressure on the front man. Perseverance paid out for Priaulx who crossed the line fourth, having passed Menu on lap 12. Spaniard Hernández made good progress in the second half of the race to secure fifth place overall with fellow countryman Porteiro winning the independent category in sixth overall, however he was eventually excluded by the stewards for hitting Coronel. Engstler inherited the independents’ victory and sixth place, while Menu came home eighth to start race two on pole.http://www.fiawtcc.com/2009/uploadedFiles/PDF/RP.4.2009517225639.pdf Race Report

Race Two

Chevrolet achieved their fourth consecutive win and this time it was Menu on the top podium spot. He was joined by teammate Huff who crossed the line third and Farfus from BMW Team Germany took second place just as in race one. The race was suspended when Engstler collided with the safety car. During the first lap Porteiro hit Hernández with the later not being able to rejoin. Porteiro was given a drive-through penalty. Jörg Müller and Priaulx also made contact with each other in lap one. While Priaulx continued and crossed the line fourth, Müller received a drive-through penalty for pitting during the suspension of the race and finished 18th. Zanardi stormed through the pack to achieve fifth place and SEAT Sport men

and Yvan Muller scored points in sixth and seventh. The race ended under the red flags with one lap remaining after Cayrolle and Larini, who were battling for eighth spot, were involved in a collision.

Results

Qualifying

: —

Nicola Larini Nicola Larini (born 19 March 1964) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and . In touring car racing, Larini won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1993 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, 1993 and the I ...

and Sergio Hernández had all their times in Q2 deleted for exceeding the engine rev limit on their cars. : —

had his four fastest lap times in Q1 deleted for exceeding the engine rev limit on his car. : —

had his fastest lap time in Q1 deleted for exceeding the engine rev limit and the maximum supercharged air pressure on his car.

Race 1

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Race 2

*Bold denotes ''Fastest lap''.

Standings after the event

;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

Results Booklet PDF at MST SystemsCollision between Engstler and Safety Car at YouTube
{{WTCC race , Name_of_race=FIA WTCC Race of France , Year_of_race=2009 , Previous_race_in_season=

2009 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco The 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco (formally the 2009 FIA WTCC HSBC Race of Morocco) was the third round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season. It was held on 3 May 2009 at the Marrakech Street Circuit in Marrakech, Morocco. It was the ...

, Next_race_in_season= 2009 FIA WTCC Race of Spain , Previous_year's_race= 2008 FIA WTCC Race of France , Next_year's_race= 2014 FIA WTCC Race of France Race of France

Pau Grand Prix