The independent category has been competitive right from the start with many experienced touring car drivers entered including two former WTCC independent champions. In qualifying, I drove a very good lap, but unfortunately was beat out to pole position by Stefano D’Aste of Italy by 0.15 seconds. This put me on the front row of the independents and 14th overall in the competition.

In race 1, it rained hard for about 30 minutes before the start of the race so it was a wet race. Starting from the front row, I knew it was going to be a great challenge because I had never driven the Chevrolet Lacetti in the rain before. I was going into the race blind and had very little time to adapt my driving style to the front wheel drive car in the rain.

Fortunately, I was able to adapt immediately during the race and was quick enough in the race to fight with the leader D’Aste. Fighting through the puddles and extremely wet track, I managed to hold onto 2nd position up until the final lap as the track began to slowly dry. It was tricky conditions because the track was half dry and half wet which made it very patchy and unpredictable. In front of me was D’Aste and behind me was former BMW factory driver, Sergio Hernandez, both whom were past independent class champions.

On the final lap of race 1, I closed in on D’Aste and tried to overtake him into turn 4. He defended on the inside and I looked outside to try and outbrake him into the corner. For a quick moment, I contemplated to myself if I should just settle for second place, but in a split second decision, I decided to push hard and try to go for the victory. Unfortunately, as we were side by side into the corner, he pushed me out wide and made contact with me causing me to slide into the grass and crash into the tire barrier. Fortunately, the impact was minor and I was able to keep the car going and recover the car to finish the race in 3rd position in the independents class.

Although disappointed not to take the victory for Hong Kong in my debut WTCC race, I was pleased with the overall result to be on the podium and score some excellent championship points.
In touring car racing, the races are literally back to back and according to regulations, in between the two races, there is only 10 minutes to repair the cars from the previous race. My team, Bamboo Engineering, did a brilliant job getting my car ready to be back on the grid in the short time allotted.

Unfortunately, the damage from race one was just too severe and I could tell immediately from leaving the pit that the car was in rough shape. After the race started, I found that I had a large amount of under steer because my cars camber on the front left had been reduced by a large amount when I hit the tire barrier. I did all I could do to bring the car back and finish the race to score some points, but the race was a bit uneventful for me and there was no chance to challenge for the win.

It is disappointing not to win as I was one of the quickest independent cars throughout the weekend, but I learned alot and the experience was invaluable. There is a very long season ahead and I accomplished what I had set out to do this weekend, which was to establish to everyone that I am not only here to be a part of the WTCC, but that I am a contender for this year’s independents championship.

I am really looking forward to the next race in Marrakesh, Morocco to build on this great start we had this weekend. Thank you everyone for the support and I hope you can continue to follow my exciting progress this year in the World Touring Car Championship!

We got the WTCC weekend kicked off today with the first free practice of the weekend. The weather has been rain and shine all week so I was very happy to get a dry track for todays session.

I ended the 30min free practice session by setting my fastest time of the day on lap 14 of 17 and clocked a best time of 1:26.5. Suprisingly, this was the 11th quickest of the session and put me 1st in the independents category.

I am very pleased with this result as I had not expected to start off so well. Behind me in independents by 0.1sec was Sergio Hernandez in a BMW.

Although it is good to start off well, I know this is only a start and I will have to keep pushing hard in order to hold this position. There are many fast cars in the independents this year and everyone will definitely improve.

I will work hard to stay ahead and gain confidence in my Chevrolet Lacetti as the weekend progresses. So far, the car feels great and Bamboo Engineering did a great job to give me a very good car right from the start.

Tomorrow has 2 more practice sessions before heading into qualifying in the afternoon. We will work to improve the car and most importantly, I will study the Motec data alot in order to find the areas where I can improve! Follow the live timing on www.fiawtcc.com for tmrws practice and qualifying session...

OK!!! After a winter away from blogging, I am going to get back on it this year as I enter an exciting new adventure in the 2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship. This will be the first World Championship series I have ever competed in so it will be alot of fun and a big challenge! The WTCC has some of the worlds best drivers so it will be a great experience to compete with them wheel to wheel.

I feel very blessed to have this chance, and I can't be thankful enough to my sponsors LKM and A-Ha Coffee, who have believed in me for the past 3 seasons by supporting me in my European racing and continue to in the WTCC. I also want to thank Chevrolet and the KSO(WTCC) for the support in bringing me into this championship. We had alot of discussions over the winter with all the involved parties so I am pleased to finally be here at the race track to get things kicked off!

This season is a big step forward in my career and I hope to stay in this championship for the coming years... Therefore, my attitude toward this season is to learn as much as I can and look long term to adapt my driving style to these cars and this championship.

The big changes this season will be adapting to my Front Wheel Drive Chevrolet Lacetti. I have been driving rear wheel drive Porsche's for the past 6 seasons so I will have to change my thinking and feeling for the car.

Having spent the past week with my team, Bamboo Engineering, I have already learned alot speaking with my engineers and my team mate. I also had the chance to test a fwd Clio at Brands Hatch, so it gave me a chance to better understand the dynamics of fwd.

I have just arrived in Curitiba Brazil last night as the first race of the season will kick off this weekend. Today I did my seat fitting in the car to ensure I am comfortable with the seating position. It is amazing how far you sit back in these cars and also how low the seat is. With less power in these cars, the handling is extremely important so having low center of gravity and also keeping the weight away from the front axle as much as possible is something the team really works towards.

Even a few centimeters or a few kilograms shifted forward or back makes a big difference, so I found that quite interesting…

Last week,I spent about 5 hours on the team’s simulator in the UK before coming to Brazil so that helped me out a lot too. I was able to get an understanding of the track here and they even put the setup of the Chevrolet in the simulator so I had the same gearing and setup as we will to start Fridays practice session.

Tmrw afternoon, I will be going to a nearby track for a afternoon shake down just to give me a feel of the car and check that everything is ok.. The real action starts on Friday with a 30min practice session before Practice and qualifying on Saturday!
More updates to come! I also hope to get some pictures up soon.

Cheers!

It was an extremely hard fought race for me today at the 56th Macau Grand Prix...I attacked hard the entire race but I couldn't find a way past the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Japan's Keita Sawa after he passed me at the start of the race.

I gave it my best shot as the lights went green but I couldn't hold off the high horse powered Lambo into turn 1. The tourque on that car was just too much and his acceleration was strong. Although I had the quicker car today, I wasn't able to get past him in the 10 lap race around the 6.2km Guia Street Circuit.

I gave him maximum pressure the entire race and stayed glued to his rear bumper the whole time. I tried to force him into an error but Sawa drove a strong and consistent race, and although he scraped his left mirror off against the wall, that was as close to a mistake as he would come.

It didn't help me when the yellow flag came out at the Lisboa bend for the last 4 laps, as that is the only real corner to overtake on the circuit and the yellow flag there stopped any hope of getting by the Lamborghini.

Although obviously disappointed to not have won the race today, I am extremely satisfied with my performance on the track as I know I gave it my 100% today and I was really trying to get the win for all the Chinese fans at the race and also watching on television.

Everyone was cheering and I wasj able to even feel it in the race car, so a big thank you to everyone for the constant support! At the end, I had to settle for 2nd place and I'll aim to come back next year to try and grab my Macau GT title back.

Keita Sawa has been a great competitor for many years so its great to see him win at the Grand Prix so a big congratulations to him.

Lastly, Thanks to LKM and Team Jebsen for all the continued support in my racing and at this years Macau Grand Prix.
They have been great sponsors and I wouldn't be here fighting for race wins without them!

I was able to grab pole position today for tmrw's 10 lap race in Macau at the Macau Grand Prix!

It was a tough one for me today, mainly due to the fact that we had a fuel pump problem in the free practice which stopped my car after only 1 lap into the session.

In Macau, there is limited track time and it is a circuit that requires you to drive laps around in order to re-familiarise with and get used to the barriers, so I knew heading into the qualifying session that I would have alot of hard work ahead.

I studied alot of onboard video's from last years race in order to prepare myself for the qualifying because I knew I had to go out there and push hard right from the start.

Because I wasn't able to setup the car in the free practice, my car was oversteering alot during the session so I had to just try my best and drive around the problem. It was scary at times as my car was oversteering even through the corners that reached over 200km/h, but I somehow managed it pull it all together to clock a time of 2:27.35 seconds. That was good enough by 0.2 seconds to grab pole position over Japan's Keita Sawa in a Lamborgini GT3 Gallardo. Danny Watts of Great Britain starts 3rd also in a Porsche.

Tomorrow's race is going to be an exciting one so if you're in Hong Kong, try to catch it live at 10:30am on Now Sports 1 or TVB. Wish me luck and I hope I can take my 4th win and my 3rd consecutive title since 2007!