May 1, 2005 The prediction that BMW would dominate at French round of the World Touring Car Championship at the weekend (1 May 2005) at Magny Cours was born out by a total German domination in both races. In race one Jorg Muller lead the BMWs home after a spectacular start that saw Andy Priaulx overtaking Alfa Romeo's Augusto Farfus and Rickard Rydell before entering the first corner. The 2004 FIA ETCC title holder did not surrender this advantage and crossed the line in second place 2.882 seconds behind the winner. Rydell represented SEAT Sport on the podium by finishing third in his SEAT Toledo Cupra after an exciting duel with Gabriele Tarquini's Alfa Romeo. Antonio Garcia, Dirk Muller, Jordi Gené and Farfus filled the other point positions, while Peter Terting made a daring move on the very last corner of the race to overtake Fabrizio Giovanardi, enabling the German rookie to claim ninth place.

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Early in the race Chevrolet's Alain Menu was involved in an incident with Stefano D'Aste which resulted in a premature finish for both; almost at the same time Adam Lacko went off into the gravel trap. Menu's team-mates, Nicola Larini and Robert Huff however, kept team spirits high by finishing 17th and 19th.

Ford Hotfiel Sport are still suffering with difficulties as Thomas Klenke only completed 8 laps of the race due to a contact with another car. His team-mate Thomas Jäger managed all 12 laps and finished 24th. The third Ford in the race, Sascha Plöderl old Focus, retired with a broken driveshaft.

Marc Hennerici continued his success as an independent driver and obtained maximum points by overtaking rival Carl Rosenblad on the penultimate lap. He crossed the line 13th overall. Alessandro Zanardi overcame a gearbox problem that occurred during qualifying to secure his third consecutive win of the Italian Superturismo Championship, finishing 15th overall.

In race two the BMWs were even more dominant; the first four to finish were BMW 320i cars, despite Alfa's Farfus leading the race in the early stages. Jörg Müller was first, making it two consecutive wins. The 35 year old German started from 8th on the grid and drove a superb race. After gradually overtaking the seven drivers ahead of him, he edged away and finished just over 5 seconds ahead of the rest. The battle behind provided great entertainment for spectators, with non stop action.

In the early stages Augusto Farfus, who had started on pole, took the lead. On lap 4, under pressure from BMW drivers, the young Brazilian made a mistake and went wide dropping to fifth. Dirk Müller inherited the lead, chased by Antonio García, but on lap 5 Jörg Müller managed to overtake both.

Behind the three leaders Andy Priaulx made some impressive manoeuvres to overtake Farfus and García. Finally he had Dirk Müller in his sights but despite many efforts was unable to capture second spot. Dirk finished just 0.168 seconds ahead of Priaulx and caused some drama on the start/finish grid as he spun. Farfus, who was the best placed of the Alfa Romeo drivers with fifth position, could not swerve in time and hit him. SEAT Sport had two drivers in the top 10 with Gene sixth and Terting tenth.

Positive steps have been made by Ford Hotfiel Sport this weekend as round 4 saw both Ford Focus cars crossing the chequered flag for the first time. Thomas Jäger and Thomas Klenke finished 22nd and 23rd respectively. Chevrolet too had an improvement with Nicola Larini moving closer obtaining a top 10 finish. He finished 13th, whilst team-mate Robert Huff was 16th .

Tom Coronel emerged as the winner of the Independents' race in his GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra. The Dutchman took 14th place overall just ahead of Carl Rosenblad, while his team-mate Valle Mäkelä's pursuit for points was put to an end after contact was made with Alessandro Zanardi's BMW during a fight for the leadership of the Italian Championship. Proteam Motorsport's Giuseppe Cirò finished the race 18th overall and inherited win in the Italian Supertursimo Championship.

WTCC - Magny-Cours, 1st May 2005

Results Race 1 1 Jörg Müller (GER) BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 2 Andy Priaulx (GBR) BMW Team UK BMW 320i 3 Rickard Rydell (SWE) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 4 Gabriele Tarquini (ITA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 5 Antonio García (ESP) BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 6 Dirk Müller (GER) BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 7 Jordi Gené (ESP) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 8 Augusto Farfus jr. (BRA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 9 Peter Terting (GER) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 10 Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 11 James Thompson (GBR) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 12 Roberto Colciago (ITA) JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 13 Marc Hennerici (GER) Wiechers-Sport BMW 320i 14 Carl Rosenblad (SWE) Crawford Racing BMW 320i 15 Alessandro Zanardi (ITA) BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i

Results Race 2 1 Jörg Müller (GER) BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 2 Dirk Müller (GER) BMW Team Deutschland BMW 320i 3 Andy Priaulx (GBR) BMW Team UK BMW 320i 4 Antonio García (ESP) BMW Team Italy-Spain BMW 320i 5 Augusto Farfus jr. (BRA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 6 Jordi Gené (ESP) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 7 Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 8 Gabriele Tarquini (ITA) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 9 James Thompson (GBR) Alfa Romeo Racing Team Alfa Romeo 156 10 Peter Terting (GER) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 11 Rickard Rydell (SWE) SEAT Sport SEAT Toledo Cupra 12 Roberto Colciago (ITA) JAS Motorsport Honda Accord Euro R 13 Nicola Larini (ITA) Chevrolet Chevrolet Lacetti 14 Tom Coronel (NED) GR Asia SEAT Toledo Cupra 15 Carl Rosenblad (SWE) Crawford Racing BMW 320i

Round three (races five and six) of the WTCC takes place on 15 May at Silverstone in the UK.

Jörg MÜLLER: “When we tested in March we discovered a great setup which is particularly effective here at Magny-Cours. I had an old set of tyres in the first race and managed to keep the others behind me, so I was sure that with a new set of tyres in the second I could do even better. In the first race I took a good start and managed to pull away, leaving the fighting to the others. The second race was much harder for me because I had to overtake, and overtaking means taking risks.”

Dirk MÜLLER: “The weight that I was carrying here made it very difficult, it felt like I was driving a little truck. It was important for me to adjust my driving here but we found a good setup and that helped a great deal. I feel totally satisfied with both the races. At the end of the second race I don’t really know what happened, it felt a little light at the rear but it didn’t appear to be a problem so I crossed the line. Then I lost control of the rear, braked very hard and spun.”

Andy PRIAULX: “We have had some work to do this season, we need to make the big step up in winning races. We have learned a lot this weekend and will be working hard to do well at Silverstone. It’s a long Championship made especially tough with the reverse grid and ballast. The competition was very hard but very fair today and I think that we will all see some fantastic racing if this standard continues.”

Antonio GARCÍA: “I have mixed feelings. I’m happy for my championship position, but not really with the result of the second race. I could have finished second if I had managed to overtake Dirk. We had a great fight, struggling against the extra weight. Then Jörg came and overtook us very easily. I desperately tried to get past Dirk, but I flat-spotted my front tyres and this enabled Priaulx to steal the third position from me.”

Rickard RYDELL: “I am satisfied with third in Race 1, but to be honest we were expecting more for this meeting. It is clear that BMW have the advantage and we need to look into the difference in performance. In the second race I was caught in a pack with lot of cars changing positions which prevented me from fighting for another podium place.”

Drivers Points after four rounds of WTCC 1 BMW 320i Dirk Müller (GER) 29 2 BMW 320i Jörg Müller (GER) 25 3 BMW 320i Andy Priaulx (GBR) 23 4 BMW 320i Antonio García (ESP) 19 5 Alfa Romeo 156 Gabriele Tarquini (ITA) 14 6 Alfa Romeo 156 James Thompson (GBR) 12 7 Alfa Romeo Augusto Farfus jr. (BRA) 11 8 SEAT Toledo Cupra Jordi Gené (ESP) 8 9 SEAT Toledo Cupra Rickard Rydell (SWE) 7 10 Alfa Romeo 156 Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA) 6

Manufacturers Points after four rounds of WTCC 1 BMW 65 2 Alfa Romeo 46 3 Seat 33 4 Chevrolet 12