Alain Menu has hit out at SEAT driver Jordi Gene after a difficult start to the World Touring Car Championship season for the Chevrolet team in Brazil.
The RML-run outfit headed to Curitiba in buoyant mood after a solid testing programme throughout the offseason, although qualifying didn't quite go to plan for Menu when he went off heavily into the barriers at the final corner and was taken to hospital for precautionary checks as a result.
Despite heavy damage to his Lacetti, Menu was still able to line up in eleventh place on the grid for the opening race but his chance of securing a good result to start the season disappeared when he was hit by the SEAT of Jordi Gene at turn one, with the damage sustained forcing him to retire.
That retirement left Menu right at the back of the field for race two, and despite his best efforts to come through the field, the former BTCC champion could only make it up to tenth place to cap a difficult start to the year.
"Everything was going just fine in race one," he said. "At the end of the first lap I had noticed Gene braked at least ten metres too early at the end of the straight, so next time round, when he did that again, I dived inside of him since the door was wide open. I was perfectly alongside him and he just deliberately turned in on me. It wasn't a case of closing the door, since we weren't even at the corner yet.
"Then in the second race I had a perfect start, but Rob [Huff] got hit by another car and went sideways so I had to come to a near-standstill, losing all the places I had made up at the start. So from then on I could only try to limit the damage, but the car worked brilliantly and I finished tenth. Without the first-corner incident I'm sure I would have finished in the points."
Chevrolet Europe motorsport chief Eric Neve was also far from happy with how the weekend had panned out for his team, with Nicola Larini and Rob Huff also unable to score after encountering their own problems.
![Alain Menu - Chevrolet Lacetti [pic credit: FIA WTCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/412102.jpg)
