Pole and points for Gordon Shedden in packed Portuguese race

Strong weekend filled with good luck, as Shedden avoids horror crash as record crowd turn out in Vila Real.

Gordon Shedden scored key points during his first visit to the Vila Real street circuit in Portugal this weekend, critically avoiding a major crash which caused the first race on Saturday to be red-flagged for more than two hours, before starting from his first pole position in the FIA World Touring Car Cup on Sunday.

All six of the Audis entered at the Portuguese street circuit were run by teams and with drivers who had no previous experience of the epic 4.79km circuit in the Douro valley region of the country, which saw most of the drivers struggle throughout practice and qualifying on the first day, with one of the tightest timetables of the season.

The three-time British champion qualified a relatively lowly 18th for Race 1, but with the front row pair of Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani colliding at the start of the race and with the bulk of the field involved in the incident, the race was restarted with Shedden now elevated to tenth in the starting order.

Shedden made up another spot during the race to finish ninth, while on Sunday, the Audi drivers made a leap forward in pace. Shedden qualified a key tenth place in Sunday morning's qualifying, which secured the Scotsman pole position for the reversed-grid second race of the day.

Shedden led the way at the start ahead of touring car superstar Yvan Muller, with the two drivers going head-to-head on the first lap, which saw Muller fall behind the Peugeot of Mat'o Homola. While Shedden was the first to take the joker lap of the leading trio, which saw him fall to third overall before he was given a controversial five-second penalty for missing the chicane on the first lap, where a number of drivers hit the barriers.

With Shedden's penalty, he dropped to sixth in the final order, missing out on his first podium result of the season, while Race 3 was generally a procession but the Scotsman was on target for more points until a driveshaft failure with two laps to go.

Gordon Shedden said:

“It was a good weekend all round. Street circuits are a little bit tricky for us, but things were getting better as we went on. Vila Real is a really quirky circuit. It’s fast and there’s a lot going on, and you can could really tell the difference in pace between the guys who had already been here.  They got up and running pretty quickly so they didn’t have to go far to get the ultimate from their cars.

“The joker lap didn’t work too well for us in Race 2. It was good to start from pole, but the Hyundai has found a lot of pace since Zandvoort, and the Peugeot is 70kg lighter than us, so it just stops, turns and goes, so we had no way of stopping it.

“The next circuit is the Slovakiaring, it’s one I’ve at least been to before even if it was for a few demonstration runs in a road car, and one that on paper should suit the Audi RS 3 LMS, so I’m looking forward to it and putting some more points on the board.”

Saturday qualifying result

1 - Rob Huff - Sébastien Loeb Racing - Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR - 2:00.924

2 - Mehdi Bennani - Sébastien Loeb Racing - Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR - 0.027

3 - Norbert Michelisz - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 0.356

4 - Yann Ehrlacher - Münnich Motorsport - Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR - 0.521

5 - Thed Bjork - Yvan Muller Racing - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 0.759

18 - Gordon Shedden - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 2.409

Saturday race result

1 - Yvan Muller - Yvan Muller Racing - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 13 laps

2 - Esteban Guerrieri - Münnich Motorsport - Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR - 2.06

3 - Pepe Oriola - Campos Racing - Cupra TCR - 10.596

4 - Gabriele Tarquini - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 12.925

5 - Jean-Karl Vernay - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 13.926

9 - Gordon Shedden - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 20.169

Sunday qualifying result

1 - Thed Bjork - Yvan Muller Racing - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 1:59.824

2 - Norbert Michelisz - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 0.34

3 - Gabriele Tarquini - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 0.495

4 - Pepe Oriola - Campos Racing - Cupra TCR - 0.602

5 - Yann Ehrlacher - Münnich Motorsport - Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR - 1.442

10 - Gordon Shedden - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 1.168

Sunday reversed grid race result

1 - Mat'o Homola - DG Sport Compétition - Peugeot 308TCR - 11 laps

2 - Yvan Muller - Yvan Muller Racing - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 0.764

3 - Pepe Oriola - Campos Racing - Cupra TCR - 2.025

4 - Jean-Karl Vernay - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 3.635

5 - Norbert Michelisz - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 4.144

6 - Gordon Shedden - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - 6.335

Sunday final race result

1 - Thed Bjork - Yvan Muller Racing - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 15 laps

2 - Gabriele Tarquini - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 3.193

3 - Norbert Michelisz - BRC Racing Team - Hyundai i30 N TCR - 3.64

4 - Pepe Oriola - Campos Racing - Cupra TCR - 4.17

5 - Mat'o Homola - DG Sport Compétition - Peugeot 308TCR - 4.781

17 - Gordon Shedden  - Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team - Audi RS 3 LMS - DNF

The next round of the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup takes place at the Slovakiaring near Bratislava on July 14th-15th.

Race report and image provided by Gordon Shedden