Estoril: ROAL Motorsport weekend summary

Porteiro close to the podium despite the ballast

Felix Porteiro close to the podium of race two at Estoril in the sixth round of the WTCC 2008 championship. The Spaniard, eighth in race one, together with his team mate Alessandro Zanardi was the BMW driver with the highest handicap weight in the Portuguese round. After the start from the pole position, the Spanish driver strenuously defended the lead of the race but had inevitably to give up the pace first to Monteiro and in the final stages to Y. Muller and Priaulx. Zanardi was outside of the points instead. In race one he was forced to an unscheduled pit-stop while in the second race he finished thirteenth.

Roberto Ravaglia (Team principal):

"As foreseen, Estoril has turned out to be a difficult track for BMW and especially for us due to the ballast that we carried on board, that was 47kg on Porteiro's car and 48kg on Zanardi's. Felix has been able to finish eighth in race one, obtaining in this way the pole position for the second race. He responded very correctly to the attacks of Monteiro as long as he could and afterwards he tried to keep the second place. In the final stages, the wearing of front tyres, critical especially under braking, forced him to give away two positions more. Alessandro has been involved in several contacts in race one that damaged both the front and rear suspensions of his car. The car was damaged so badly that he thought to have a puncture. In race two, despite starting from the back, he defended well and achieved a result that I judge positive."

-credit: roal