Tarquini expects tough time at Pau

The Italian is eight points clear of SEAT teammates Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell in the title race, but will be the heaviest car at Pau with 61kg of success ballast.

"Pau is probably the most difficult track of the season," he said. "I'm carrying a lot of weight and the track is slow and has a lot of curves, which is not the most suitable for our TDi. In addition, we don't have any background information since last year we were racing the petrol car."

SEAT's Jordi Gene, who will be the third heaviest car at Pau with 39kg of ballast, agreed with Tarquini.

"The difficulty of racing with a heavy car on an urban track centres on the moment when the tyres start to wear and a small error can take you out," he said. "Although the excellent performance of our Leon TDi makes me believe I'll achieve the same results as up to now."

Fellow SEAT driver Yvan Muller is relishing his home event, though. With 28kg of ballast he is lighter than most of this rivals and is confident of closing the gap to Tarquini in the championship.

"It's a pleasure to race at Pau," he said. "Urban tracks are especially appealing and, besides, it's on home soil. Naturally I'm looking forward to a good result, not only because I'll be racing at home but because I need to get more victories.

"The only thing I can't predict is the car's performance, since it's never been driven there, but we'll have to see how well it does on this track."