2010 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium

Race details
Round 4 of 11 in the 2010 World Touring Car Championship at Zolder in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.
Date	20 June, 2010
Location	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
Course	Zolder 4.006 kilometres (2.489 mi)
Race One
Laps 13 Pole position Driver Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport Time 1:38.265 Podium First Gabriele Tarquini SR-Sport Second Yvan Muller Chevrolet RML Third Alain Menu Chevrolet RML Fastest Lap Driver Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM Time 1:40.138
Race Two
Laps 13 Podium First Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM Second Robert Huff Chevrolet RML Third Tiago Monteiro SR-Sport Fastest Lap Driver Andy Priaulx BMW Team RBM Time 1:40.181

The 2010 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium (formally the 2010 FIA WTCC Monroe Race of Belgium) was the fourth round of the 2010 World Touring Car Championship season and the second running of the FIA WTCC Race of Belgium. It was held at Circuit Zolder, near Heusden-Zolder, Belgium on 20 June 2010. It saw the return of the Race of Belgium to the championship, after it was last held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 2005. The first race was won by Gabriele Tarquini for SR-Sport and the second race was won by Andy Priaulx for BMW Team RBM.

After round three, Yvan Muller was leading the championship on 100 points, 24 ahead of Tarquini and Chevrolet RML teammate Robert Huff. Sergio Hernández was leading the Yokohama Independents' Trophy.

Two Belgian drivers joined the field for the event, with Vincent Radermecker joining the factory Chevrolet RML team,^[1] while Pierre-Yves Corthals returned to the WTCC in an Exagon Engineering run SEAT León 2.0 TFSI.^[2]

Augusto Farfus set the fastest time in Friday testing, with his team–mate Priaulx finishing third. Between them was the Chevrolet Cruze of championship leader Muller. Darryl O'Young in the bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti was fourth fastest and the lead independent driver. Alain Menu and Huff saw reduced running thanks to technical problems. Radermecker was the fastest of the two Belgian drivers in tenth. Corthals was 21st in the sole petrol SEAT entry.^[3]

Tiago Monteiro was quickest in the drying conditions of free practice one on Saturday morning, with team–mates Tom Coronel and Jordi Gené second and third. Farfus was the top BMW in fourth and seventh placed Menu was the leading Chevrolet.^[4]

Gené led the final practice session with Monteiro second, Muller third and Menu in fourth. Harry Vaulkhard was the fastest independent driver in fifth. The session was brought to a close four minutes early when the engine in Tarquini's SEAT blew, bringing out the red flags.^[5]

Alain Menu was fastest in Q1 for Chevrolet, ahead of SR-Sport's Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini. The most notable casualty from the session was Tom Coronel, who was 11th fastest.

In the ten-minute Q2 session, eight of the ten competing cars set their first flying laptimes before rain began to fall over the circuit. Tarquini was fastest ahead of teammate Jordi Gené, Chevrolet teammates Menu and Yvan Muller and the SEATs of Norbert Michelisz, Fredy Barth and Monteiro. The BMW Team RBM pairing of Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus did not set times until after the rain arrived, meaning they could only set the ninth and tenth fastest times.^[6]

BMW Team RBM pair Priaulx and Farfus led Sunday morning warm–up.^[7]

At the start of the race, pole sitter Tarquini was passed by SR-Sport teammate Gené. However, the Spaniard's start was put under investigation, as tt appeared that Gené was ahead of Tarquini as the pair crossed the line for the rolling start. Further behind, contact behind O'Young and Michel Nykjær put O'Young in the gravel, but he managed to rejoin the back of the pack. As the leaders remained in order, Kristian Poulsen passed Corthals for the independents lead and 12th place overall. Having dropped back to tenth place early on, Priaulx passed Coronel for eighth place and pole position for the reverse grid second race. Gené meanwhile took the victory ahead of Tarquini, Muller, Menu and Monteiro.^[8]

After the second race of the day, Gené was disqualified for a technical infringement, handing the victory to Tarquini.^[9]

Polesitter Priaulx made a good start to Race Two. Fellow front-row starter Norbert Michelisz made a slow getaway, dropping him to eighth. Coronel also made a slow start from ninth place. Priaulx, Huff, Monteiro, Menu and Muller followed each other around until the end of the race. Farfus attempted to pass Tarquini for sixth around the outside of turn one, but ran wide and dropped back to eighth behind Michelisz. Hernández took the independents victory in ninth position ahead of Coronel.^[10]

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Q1	Q2
1	1	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:38.999	1:38.265
2	4	Jordi Gené	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:39.061	1:38.430
3	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		1:38.840	1:38.494
4	6	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		1:39.037	1:38.584
5	7	Robert Huff	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		1:39.187	1:38.779
6	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő-Dension Team	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:39.072	1:39.072
7	18	Fredy Barth	SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:39.151	1:39.173
8	3	Tiago Monteiro	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:38.875	1:39.255
9	11	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		1:39.030	1:42.856
10	10	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		1:39.112	1:52.493
11	2	Tom Coronel	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:39.456
12	17	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		1:39.472
13	27	Pierre-Yves Corthals	Exagon Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TFSI	Y	1:39.610
14	20	Darryl O'Young	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	1:39.824
15	24	Kristian Poulsen	Poulsen Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	1:39.863
16	35	Vincent Radermecker	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		1:40.003
17	15	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	1:40.058
18	25	Sergio Hernández	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	1:40.278
19	26	Stefano D'Aste	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	1:40.287
20	19	Harry Vaulkhard	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	1:40.395
21	21	Mehdi Bennani	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320si	Y	1:40.738
22	16	Andrei Romanov	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	1:42.934

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	21:54.209	1	25
2	6	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+2.629	4	18
3	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+3.056	3	15
4	3	Tiago Monteiro	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+3.559	8	12
5	7	Robert Huff	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+3.866	5	10
6	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő-Dension Team	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+4.192	6	8
7	11	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		13	+4.827	9	6
8	2	Tom Coronel	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+9.295	11	4
9	10	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		13	+9.453	10	2
10	18	Fredy Barth	SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+9.655	7	1
11	24	Kristian Poulsen	Poulsen Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+13.373	15
12	27	Pierre-Yves Corthals	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TSFI	Y	13	+15.400	13
13	25	Sergio Hernández	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+17.611	18
14	21	Mehdi Bennani	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+18.240	21
15	19	Harry Vaulkhard	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	13	+19.423	20
16	26	Stefano D'Aste	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+20.491	19
17	35	Vincent Radermecker	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+20.877	16
18	17	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+26.489	12
19	16	Andrei Romanov	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	13	+54.042	22
20	20	Darryl O'Young	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	12	+1 Lap	14
Ret	15	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	8	Gearbox	17
DSQ	4	Jordi Gené	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	Disqualified	2

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Car	C	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	11	Andy Priaulx	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		13	21:52.091	1	25
2	7	Robert Huff	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+1.049	3	18
3	3	Tiago Monteiro	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+1.754	4	15
4	8	Alain Menu	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+2.298	5	12
5	6	Yvan Muller	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+4.784	6	10
6	1	Gabriele Tarquini	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+5.788	7	8
7	5	Norbert Michelisz	Zengő-Dension Team	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+6.283	2	6
8	10	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW 320si		13	+6.663	10	4
9	25	Sergio Hernández	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+13.491	14	2
10	2	Tom Coronel	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+14.810	9	1
11	24	Kristian Poulsen	Poulsen Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+15.063	12
12	20	Darryl O'Young	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	13	+18.227	21
13	26	Stefano D'Aste	Scuderia Proteam Motorsport	BMW 320si	Y	13	+18.876	17
14	35	Vincent Radermecker	Chevrolet RML	Chevrolet Cruze LT		13	+20.678	18
15	27	Pierre-Yves Corthals	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TSFI	Y	13	+23.936	13
16	15	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	13	+24.353	22
17	16	Andrei Romanov	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	BMW 320si	Y	13	+55.610	20
18	18	Fredy Barth	SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		13	+57.511	11
19	21	Mehdi Bennani	Wiechers-Sport	BMW 320si	Y	12	+1 Lap	15
Ret	17	Michel Nykjær	SUNRED Engineering	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		7	Race incident	19
Ret	19	Harry Vaulkhard	bamboo-engineering	Chevrolet Lacetti	Y	2	Race incident	16
Ret	4	Jordi Gené	SR-Sport	SEAT León 2.0 TDI		0	Turbo	8

• Bold denotes Fastest lap.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Yvan Muller 128 2 Gabriele Tarquini 109 1 3 Andy Priaulx 105 1 4 Robert Huff 104 2 5 Tiago Monteiro 68

Yokohama Independents' Trophy standings Pos Driver Points 1 Sergio Hernández 60 2 Stefano D'Aste 44 3 Mehdi Bennani 41 4 Franz Engstler 37 5 Harry Vaulkhard 36

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 256 2 SEAT Customers Technology 239 3 BMW 209

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of drivers' standings.

• World Touring Car Championship official website