2011 FIA WTCC Race of Belgium

The 2011 FIA WTCC Monroe Race of Belgium was a World Touring Car Championship round held at Circuit Zolder on 24 April 2011. It was the third running of the Race of Belgium, which ran at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in 2005 before leaving the calendar for four seasons until returning in the 2010 season at Zolder. The races in 2011 were won by Rob Huff and Gabriele Tarquini, who was the first non-Chevrolet driver to win a race in the season.

Race report

Race 1

The first race saw many drivers crash out and end their races prematurely. At the beginning Rob Huff had a great get away from pole whilst Tarquini attempted to pass Menu put failed. Tom Coronel had got a great get way but spun on the third lap and was hit by Franz Engstler. The damage was so much that Coronel wouldn't start race 2. Meanwhile further down the order, Aleksei Dudukalo and Yukinori Taniguchi were racing hard until Dudukalo put the Chevrolet into a small spin where Marchy Lee collected Taniguchi. Taniguchi managed to continue on in the race but Lee had to make a retirement. On lap 11 Kristian Poulsen and Norbert Michelisz were having a door to door battle, while Yvan Muller slipped past Tarquini for third. On the final lap Javier Villa (who had started at the back of the grid due to turbo issues in qualifying but was fastest in the warm-up session) passed Darryl O'Young for ninth whilst Rob Huff upfront took his second 2011 victory.

Race 2

In Race 2 there were new complications with the grid as Fredy Barth who was set for pole position had too much damage to compete along with others. This meant a reshuffle of the grid putting Tarquini on pole. Tarquini kept the three Chevrolets behind him at bay for 13 laps despite a battle with Huff on lap 5 where the two made contact that would send Huff down to sixth by the end of the race due to the damage from the collision. Darryl O'Young was working his way up the order from ninth and finished the race fourth after Yvan Muller started to suffer problems and retired. This left Alain Menu to fight for the win with Tarquini but was not good enough and behind them Tiago Monteiro completed the podium positions.

Race overview

The round at Zolder had seen Norbert Michelisz score points in his first race in the BMW and Aleksei Dudukalo and Robert Dahlgren score his first points in World Touring Cars. After the race Huff had a single point over Menu in the championship with Tarquini 14 points behind and reigning champion Muller in fourth.

Classification

Race One

Race Two

Standings after the race