2017 World Touring Car Championship

The 2017 FIA World Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for Super 2000 Cars.^[1] It was the fourteenth and last season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship,^[2] and the thirteenth since the series was revived in 2005.

2017 World Touring Car Championship

World Drivers' Champion:
Thed Björk
World Manufacturers' Champion:
Volvo Polestar

Previous

2016

Next

2018 (WTCR)

Support series:
European Touring Car Cup

The Drivers Championship was won by Thed Björk, pictured in 2015.

The Drivers Championship was won by Thed Björk and the Manufacturers Championship by Volvo Polestar.

Teams and drivers

Team	Car	No.	Drivers	Rounds
Manufacturer entries
Honda Racing Team JAS[3]	Honda Civic WTCC[3]	2	Gabriele Tarquini[4]	7
		5	Norbert Michelisz[3]	All
		18	Tiago Monteiro[3]	1–6
		34	Ryō Michigami[3]	All
		86	Esteban Guerrieri[5]	8–10
Polestar Cyan Racing[6]	Volvo S60 Polestar TC1[6]	61	Néstor Girolami[6]	1–9
		62	Thed Björk[6]	All
		63	Nick Catsburg[6]	All
		64	Yvan Müller[7]	10
WTCC Trophy
Sébastien Loeb Racing[8]	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC[8]	3	Tom Chilton[8]	All
		25	Mehdi Bennani[9]	All
		27	John Filippi[10]	All
		30	Ma Qing Hua[11]	9
RC Motorsport[12]	Lada Vesta WTCC[13]	4	Mak Ka Lok[14]	9
		22	Manuel Fernandes[15]	5
		24	Kevin Gleason[13]	2–10
		26	Filipe de Souza[16]	7–8
		68	Yann Ehrlacher[12]	All
Zengő Motorsport[17]	Honda Civic WTCC[17]	8	Aurélien Panis[17]	1–5
		66	Zsolt Szabó[18]	6–10
		99	Dániel Nagy[19]	All
ROAL Motorsport[20]	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1[20]	9	Tom Coronel[20]	All
Campos Racing[21]	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1[21]	11	Kris Richard[22]	8, 10
		44	Wong Po Wah[14]	9
		86	Esteban Guerrieri[21]	1–7
		88	Chan Kin Pong[14]	9
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport[23]	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC[23]	12	Robert Huff[23]	All
ETCC Entries ineligible to score points
Zengő Motorsport	SEAT León TCR	105	Anett György	4
		108	Norbert Nagy	4
		166	Zsolt Szabó	4
Pfister Racing	SEAT León TCR	107	Andreas Pfister	4
Rikli Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R TCR	112	Peter Rikli	4
		191	Christjohannes Schreiber	4
AKK Stefanovski	SEAT León TCR	114	Igor Stefanovski	4
LEIN Racing	SEAT León TCR	117	Mladen Lalušić	4
		137	Fábio Mota	4
Křenek Motorsport	SEAT León TCR	122	Petr Fulín	4
Kraf Racing	Audi RS 3 LMS TCR	144	Plamen Kralev	4

Team changes

• Citroën withdrew their factory team from the series in 2016 to concentrate on their 2017 World Rally Championship campaign with the C3 WRC. The C-Elysée WTCC was still available to private entries.^[24]
• Lada also withdrew their factory team at the end of the 2016 season. RC Motorsport then entered the Championship running a pair of Vesta WTCC cars before adding third car at selected rounds.^[25][12]
• Volvo will expand its campaign to three full-time entries from two full-time entries. All the three cars will be entered by Polestar Cyan Racing.^[6]
• Münnich Motorsport switched to a Citroën C-Elysée WTCC for the 2017 season after racing with a Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 for the last three seasons.^[23]

Driver changes

• Four time champion Yvan Muller retired after 2016.^[26] But has been brought out of retirement by Polestar Cyan Racing in order to assist Volvo’s challenge for the season finale in Qatar.^[27]
• Three time champion José María López left WTCC to join Toyota's WEC team^[28] in conjunction with a Formula E programme.^[29]
• Following the withdrawal of Lada, Gabriele Tarquini was unable to find a seat and left the series to join Hyundai's development of the i30 TCR.^[30] However he made a return at the Race of China for Honda after Tiago Monteiro was forced to withdraw after suffering from the after-effects of a crash in testing in early September.^[31]
• Following the withdrawal of Lada, Hugo Valente left WTCC for TCR.^[32]
• Fredrik Ekblom left Polestar Cyan Racing and returned to the STCC with Kristoffersson Motorsport.^[33]
• Following the withdrawal of Lada, Nick Catsburg joined Polestar Cyan Racing.^[6]
• After competing in two rounds in 2015 and one round in 2016, Néstor Girolami will make his full-time World Touring Car Championship debut in 2017, racing for Polestar Cyan Racing.^[6]
• Ryō Michigami joined Honda Racing Team JAS for a full-season campaign after making his World Touring Car Championship debut at his home race in Japan during the 2016 season.^[3]
• Robert Huff left the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team to join Münnich Motorsport.^[23]
• John Filippi left Campos Racing to join Sébastien Loeb Racing.^[10]
• Aurélien Panis entered the series, driving for Zengő Motorsport.^[17]
• Yann Ehrlacher entered the series, driving for RC Motorsport.^[12]
• Kevin Gleason entered the series, driving for RC Motorsport.^[34]

Rule changes

More points will be awarded for the winners of the Manufacturers Against the Clock (MAC3) team time trials (12 rather than 10), optional rallycross-style "joker laps" will be introduced in street-circuits, the second or "main race" on a race weekend will be increased in length to two laps longer than the opening races (with the exception of the Race of Germany at Nürburgring Nordschleife), the points scoring structure will be revised with more points awarded in the main race, and the length of race meetings will be reduced to two days, with testing on Fridays to be abolished and the Free Practice 1 and 2 sessions being increased from 30 to 45 minutes to compensate.^[35]

Calendar

The Monza and Macau circuits return to the WTCC, whereas France, Russia and Slovakia are dropped.

Rnd.	Race	Race Name	Circuit	Date	Supporting
1	1	AFRIQUIA Race of Morocco	Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan	9 April	stand-alone event
	2
2	3	OSCARO Race of Italy	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza	30 April	European Touring Car Cup
	4
3	5	JVCKENWOOD Race of Hungary	Hungaroring	14 May
	6
4	7	Race of Germany	Nürburgring Nordschleife	27 May	Nürburgring 24 Hours European Touring Car Cup
	8
5	9	Race of Portugal	Circuito Internacional de Vila Real	25 June	European Touring Car Cup
	10
6	11	Race of Argentina	Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo	16 July	Campeonato Argentino de Turismo Nacional
	12
7	13	Race of China	Ningbo International Circuit	15 October	China Touring Car Championship F4 Chinese Championship
	14
8	15	JVCKENWOOD Race of Japan	Twin Ring Motegi	29 October	stand-alone event
	16
9	17	JVCKENWOOD Race of Macau	Guia Circuit, Macau	18 November	TCR Chinese Racing Cup FIA F3 World Cup FIA GT World Cup
	18			19 November
10	19	Race of Qatar	Losail International Circuit	1 December	stand-alone event
	20

Results and standings

Compensation weights

• base weight of 1,100 kg

Car	Marrakech	Monza	Hungaroring	Nürburgring	Vila Real	Termas de Río Hondo	Ningbo	Motegi	Macau	Losail
Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	+50 kg	+50 kg	+60 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg	+50 kg	+40 kg	0 kg	+60 kg
Honda Civic WTCC	0 kg	0 kg	+80 kg	+70 kg	+50 kg	+60 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg	+70 kg	+80 kg
Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	+30 kg	+20 kg	0 kg	0 kg	+10 kg	+10 kg	+10 kg
Lada Vesta WTCC	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	0 kg	+10 kg
Volvo S60 Polestar TC1	0 kg	0 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg	+60 kg	+70 kg	+70 kg	+80 kg	+80 kg

Races

Race	Race Name	MAC3 winner	Pole Position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Winning manufacturer	Independent winner	Report
1	Race of Morocco	Volvo		Dániel Nagy	Esteban Guerrieri	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	Esteban Guerrieri	Report
2			Tiago Monteiro	Esteban Guerrieri	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Tom Chilton
3	Race of Italy	Volvo		Thed Björk	Tom Chilton	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Tom Chilton	Report
4			Thed Björk	Thed Björk	Thed Björk	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	Robert Huff
5	Race of Hungary	Honda		Esteban Guerrieri	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Tom Chilton	Report
6			Robert Huff	Robert Huff	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Mehdi Bennani
7	Race of Germany	Volvo		Tom Chilton	Thed Björk	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	Mehdi Bennani	Report
8			Norbert Michelisz	Nick Catsburg	Nick Catsburg	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	Robert Huff
9	Race of Portugal	Volvo		Norbert Michelisz	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Mehdi Bennani	Report
10			Norbert Michelisz	Robert Huff	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Robert Huff
11	Race of Argentina	Volvo		Thed Björk	Yann Ehrlacher	RC Motorsport	Lada	Yann Ehrlacher	Report
12			Nick Catsburg	Nick Catsburg	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Esteban Guerrieri
13	Race of China	Volvo		Esteban Guerrieri	Esteban Guerrieri	Campos Racing	Chevrolet	Esteban Guerrieri	Report
14			Néstor Girolami	Zsolt Szabó	Néstor Girolami	Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo	Tom Chilton
15	Race of Japan	Honda		Tom Chilton	Tom Chilton	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Tom Chilton	Report
16			Norbert Michelisz	Nick Catsburg	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Mehdi Bennani
17	Guia Race of Macau	Honda		Robert Huff	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Mehdi Bennani	Report
18			Robert Huff	Ma Qing Hua	Robert Huff	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Citroën	Robert Huff
19	Race of Qatar	Volvo		Mehdi Bennani	Tom Chilton	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën	Tom Chilton	Report
20			Esteban Guerrieri	Esteban Guerrieri	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda	Robert Huff

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

China Race 2 was half-points awarded.

Pos. Driver MAR ITA HUN GER PRT ARG CHN‡ JPN MAC QAT  Pts.  1 Thed Björk 2 7 5 11 NC 7 1 45 3 23 6 35 NC 22 4 5 4 54 5 44 283.5 2 Norbert Michelisz 5 23 NC 6 NC 4 7 21 7 11 14 12 DSQ DSQ 7 11 5 22 9 8 255 3 Tom Chilton 7 5 1 Ret 2 3 4 5 4 6 4 7 Ret 34 1 10 8 33 1 5 248.5 4 Esteban Guerrieri 1 13 4 8 6 63 5 8 Ret 8 3 44 1 45 3 44 6 45 10 11 241 5 Nicky Catsburg 4 4 8 44 5 24 6 12 5 45 15 161 3 5 9 22 9 13 8 32 238.5 6 Mehdi Bennani 3 65 NC 7 7 12 2 6 1 7 2 5 NC 11 5 6 1 7 2 Ret 234 7 Robert Huff Ret 94 2 33 3 101 3 33 6 52 7 9 Ret 12†3 8 11 7 11 7 23 215 8 Tiago Monteiro 6 11 3 22 1 5 15 134 2 34 5 23 200 9 Néstor Girolami 9 32 NC 55 4 Ret5 Ret DNS 8 9 16 6 Ret 11 11 33 13 9 112 10 Yann Ehrlacher Ret 12 11 9 8 8 9 9 9 11 1 8 2 8 2 7 12 14 13 12 90 11 Tom Coronel 8 8 6 11 9 9 8 7 DNS DNS 9 10 7† 9 13 13 2 6 11 11 69 12 John Filippi NC 11 7 10 14† 11 10 10 10 10 8 12 4 6 12 9 11 16 4 9 48 13 Kevin Gleason 9 13 12 12 12 11 Ret 12 11 13 5 7 6 8 10 8 3 14 47.5 14 Ryō Michigami Ret 10 Ret Ret 11 13 11 Ret Ret 13 10 11 DSQ DSQ 10 Ret5 3 15 14 10 20 15 Yvan Muller 6 75 16 16 Kris Richard 14 12 12 6 10 17 Filipe de Souza 6 10 16 15 8.5 18 Aurélien Panis 10 Ret DNS 12 10 14 13 12 11 16† 2 19 Dániel Nagy 11† 14 10 Ret 13 Ret 14 Ret 13 14 12 14 DSQ DSQ 15 14 15 11 15 13 1 20 Zsolt Szabó 13 15 DSQ DSQ 17 16 16 10 16 15 1 21 Ma Qinghua 14 12 0 22 Manuel Fernandes 12 15 0 23 Mak Ka Lok 17 17 0 24 Wong Po Wah 18 DNS 0 - Chan Kin Pong WD WD 0 - Gabriele Tarquini DSQ DSQ - ETCC entries ineligible for points - Igor Stefanovski 17 14 - - Petr Fulín 16 16 - - Fábio Mota 18 15 - - Norbert Nagy 19 18 - - Andreas Pfister 23 17 - - Peter Rikli 20 Ret - - Mladen Lalušić 21 21 - - Plamen Kralev 24 19 - - Zsolt Szabó 25 20 - - Anett György 22 Ret - - Christjohannes Schreiber Ret DNS -

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

† – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance. ‡ – Honda Racing Team JAS was disqualified from the Race of China because of non-compliant fuel injectors.

Championship points were awarded on the results of each race at each event as follows:

Position[35]	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Opening Race Points[35]	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1
Main Race Points[35]	30	23	19	16	13	10	7	4	2	1

Notes

• ^{1 2 3 4 5} refers to the classification of the drivers after the qualifying for the main race (second race), where bonus points are awarded 5–4–3–2–1.

Manufacturers' Championship

Pos.	Manufacturer	MAR			ITA			HUN			GER			PRT			ARG			CHN			JPN			MAC			QAT			Pts.
		M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2	M	R1	R2
1	Volvo	1	1	32	1	2	11	2	2	11	1	1	12	1	2	22	1	2	31	1	1	11	2	2	22	2	2	32	1	1	22	908.5
			2	44		3	33		3	42		2	34		3	44		4	44		NC	22		4	33		4	44		2	33
2	Honda	2	3	11	2	1	22	1	1	23	2	3	21	2	1	11	2	1	12	DSQ	DSQ	DSQ	1	1	11	1	1	11	2	3	11	880
			4	23		4	44		4	34		4	43		4	33		3	23		DSQ	DSQ		3	44		3	23		4	4

Notes

Only the two best placed cars of each manufacturer earned points.

• ^{1 2 3 4 5} refers to the classification of the drivers in the main race qualification, where bonus points are awarded 5–4–3–2–1. Points were only awarded to the fastest two cars from each manufacturer.

In MAC3 points are awarded if 3 cars of the same manufacturer within a 15 seconds gap. MAC3 points were awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd
Points	12	8	6

WTCC Trophy

WTCC Trophy points are awarded to the first eight drivers classified in each race on the following scale: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1. One point is awarded to the highest-placed WTCC Trophy competitor in qualifying and another for the fastest lap in each race.

Pos. Driver MAR ITA HUN GER PRT ARG CHN JPN MAC QAT  Pts.  1 Tom Chilton 3 1 1 Ret 1 2 3 2 2 2 4 3 Ret 1 1 5 4 2 1 2 138 2 Robert Huff Ret 4 2 1 2 6 2 1 3 1 5 5 Ret 9 5 6 3 1 5 1 129 3 Mehdi Bennani 2 2 NC 2 4 1 1 3 1 3 2 2 NC 8 3 1 1 4 2 Ret 128.5 4 Esteban Guerrieri 1 7 3 3 3 3 4 5 Ret 4 3 1 1 2 85 5 Yann Ehrlacher Ret 6 8 4 5 4 6 6 4 6 1 4 2 5 2 2 7 9 8 6 80 6 Tom Coronel 4 3 4 6 6 5 5 4 DNS DNS 7 6 6 6 7 8 2 3 6 5 68.5 7 John Filippi NC 5 5 5 10 7 7 7 5 5 6 7 3 3 6 4 6 10 4 4 61 8 Kevin Gleason 6 8 8 8 8 8 Ret 7 8 8 4 4 4 3 5 5 3 8 45.5 9 Dániel Nagy 6† 8 7 Ret 9 Ret 10 Ret 8 8 9 9 DSQ DSQ 9 9 10 7 9 7 13 10 Kris Richard 8 7 7 3 11 11 Aurélien Panis 5 Ret DNS 7 7 9 9 9 6 10† 11 12 Filipe de Souza 5 7 10 10 5 13 Zsolt Szabó 10 10 DSQ DSQ 11 11 10 6 10 9 3 14 Ma Qinghua 8 8 3 15 Manuel Fernandes 7 9 2 16 Mak Ka Lok 11 12 0 17 Wong Po Wah 12 DNS 0 - Chan Kin Pong WD WD 0

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

† – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.

WTCC Teams' Trophy

All the teams taking part in the championship were eligible to score points towards the Teams' Trophy, with the exception of manufacturer teams, with the first car from each team scoring points in each race on the following scale: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Pos.	Team	MAR		ITA		HUN		GER		PRT		ARG		CHN		JPN		MAC		QAT		Pts.
1	Sébastien Loeb Racing	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	3	1	1	1	1	2	1	2	175
2	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Ret	3	2	1	2	5	2	1	2	1	4	4	Ret	5	3	3	3	1	3	1	128
3	Campos Racing	1	5	3	3	3	2	3	4	Ret	3	3	1	1	2	5	4	6	DNS	5	3	109
4	RC Motorsport	Ret	4	5	4	4	3	5	5	3	4	1	3	2	3	2	2	4	4	2	5	109
5	ROAL Motorsport	3	2	4	5	5	4	4	3	DNS	DNS	5	5	4	4	4	5	2	3	4	4	91.5
6	Zengő Motorsport	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	5	6	6	DSQ	DSQ	6	6	5	5	6	6	61

See also

• 2017 European Touring Car Cup