What the France?

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 04/13/2014 at 15:09 • Filed to: None

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Citroen steals the podium in Race 1 one of the WTCC, with Jose Maria Lopez winning the race, and Seb Loeb and Yvan Muller, close after.

With a tailor made car, developed especially for the new, TC1 rules, during 2013, it isn't a big surprise. The surprise came from Honda's inability to put pressure on Citroen.

Race 2 was pretty crazy, with crashes and about half of the cars not finishing the race.

Loeb won the race, followed by Maria Lopez and Hugo Valente in a Cruze.

Honda wasn't as fast as you expect a works team to be, after their main driver, Gabriele Tarquini didn't race because his fellow Italian, Gianni Morbidelli did an Italian job, on his car, making it unavailable for the race.

I wonder if Honda officials are concerned, or they hope that Citroen will surrender, before the season ends.

jkm7680 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/13/2014 at 15:13

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Love the way that the Citroen looks!

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > jkm7680 04/13/2014 at 15:30

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It will go down, probably, if the Jas team is competent enough.

duurtlang > jkm7680 04/13/2014 at 15:31

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It's interesting (to me at least) they used a model meant for emerging markets and isn't even available in Western Europe, including France. I see Citroëns everywhere, I DD a Peugeot but I had to look up what kind of car this is.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/13/2014 at 15:49

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Honda just announced a dedicated test team, so expect them to close the gap rather soon. Also, Marakkesh was not the best track to judge overall pace - Le Castellet will be much better for that. I still expect to Citroen to be on top until mid season.

Oh, and Loeb. What a man. That guy is going for his 10th world championship. Can't wait to see a wet race in WTCC and how Loeb will dominate that.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 04/13/2014 at 16:11

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Honda is sure cutting the pepper very thin(F1, LMP2, Indy, SuperGT, WTCC, they announced that they will race the NSX in the near future), they are already spending money with WTCC, they should run things themselves, sure it would cost a little more than now, but I got the feeling that the team could use some Japanese precision and discipline.

Fred (FreddsterExprs) > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 04/13/2014 at 16:17

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Well, the engine is built in Japan, the Chassis is made by JAS from Italy. And the LMP2 is very much a Wirth Research creation, and if I am not mistaken then the Indy Car engine is also designed by the American HPD branch. The only pure Japanese Honda racecar would be the SuperGT NSX I guess.

All they need is more time. Citroen was tinkering on the basic setup for 4 months at least, Honda had a first shakedown about 2 months ago. They will be on pace, but probably not soon enough to stop Loeb and Muller in 2014.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > Fred (FreddsterExprs) 04/13/2014 at 16:39

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I know, but JAS also runs the team, with Citroen you got Citroen themselves running and building almost everything. The team has more cohesion, outsourcing the team worked for Chevrolet, because it mostly won against privateers, but now things are different, rules are different.

Also, when they said that they plan to race the NSX, they meant more than the obvious SuperGT. I think they meant GT3 or something.