“The team made significant steps in the right direction,” he said. “The set-up, transmission and engine have all been improved. We expect that effort to be reflected in better results in the second half of the season.”
There will also be a new face in the second Focus from this weekend, with Thomas Jäger leaving for ‘personal’ reasons and being replaced by Michael Funke. Having raced for Hotfiel Sport in 2003 and 2004 in the German Production Car Championship, Funke is an established race winner but is yet to race on such an international stage as the WTCC. Time will only tell if he and Ford will be able to make headway in the championship but with arch-rivals Chevrolet moving on, the need to impress is more important than ever.
Although there were several notable performances in Mexico, each paled into comparison next to the superb drive by Roberto Colciago who caused a shock by emerging as the quickest driver all weekend, only for bad luck to prevent him from even scoring a point. Despite having the speed to win both of the races, a mechanical problem in race one and a thirty-second penalty in the second meant Colciago had nothing to show for a weekend where he was the driver to beat throughout. It was an equally disappointing weekend for team mate Adriano De Micheli who, like Jörg Müller, failed to reach the grid in Mexico after a crash in practice. The Independent runner will be determined to put his poor luck behind him and join Colciago in the continued search for more points in Belgium.
Still, repeat performance at Spa is unlikely but there is renewed confidence that the Accord can become a force in touring car racing, despite its significant lack of testing. With rumours that another Accord entry could be entered in the shape of BTCC front runners Team Dynamics later in the year, as well as the possibility of works involvement from Honda themselves next year, more eyes than usual will be on JAS Motorsport in Belgium.
![Dirk Muller [Pic credit: FIA WTCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/146044.jpg)
