2012 Round of France

The 2012 Round of France, the fifth of 20 rounds in the 2012 TM Master Cup season, was held at Circuit Thierry Sicotte near Bordeaux, France.

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Pre-race storylines
Power Steering, Incorporated called up two drivers to fill the seats of Anthony Griffith and Kurt Plissken, who were both suspended after the Round of England. Jacques Bouvier, the third driver for Majestic Motorsports, took over the No. 08 car for Griffith, while ARLA up-and-comer Libby Bell made her Master Cup debut in the No. 16 car in place of Plissken.

In other news, Team Saar USA chief Peter Keyes went on record complaining that the manufacturer-backed teams were getting the short end from the Master Cup officials in favor of the privateer teams. Lance Andrews speculated that Keyes's complaints might be a case of sour grapes, especially in light of the looming 2012 Karjala Grand Prix.

It was also announced that Manticore Engineering, a new team that would be attempting the Grand Prix with its own car, would use some of the Calton-Morel Altair test data and would also be using Hodges-Walter Racing engines in their cars. Manticore also announced its driver lineup for the Grand Prix – Erik Bohlender, the Norwegian driver that qualified third in 2011 en route to a ninth-place finish, and – surprisingly – former two-time Master Cup champion, current V8 Champ Car driver (and defending Grand Prix champion) Alexis Rainsford. Both drivers have ties to Calton-Morel (Bohlender drives for Calton-Morel in the Swedish touring car series, and Rainsford's Champ Car uses C-M power), which explains how Manticore secured each driver's services.

Results

 * For the complete results, click here.

Points

 * For the complete points standings, click here.

Adrien Devereux left France with the points lead, but he saw his lead shrink to one point over Arto Kekkonen by virtue of Kekkonen's 10th place finish (Kekkonen was originally shown as 6th in the finishing order and the points leads, but was given a 30-second active time penalty after the race for an incident with Michael Sykes). Luciano Soveral is third, 30 points behind Devereux. Race winner Yuliya Nosova and Zelda Ashby round out the top five.

Penalties

 * Packer Carroll – start in the rear for the Round of Sweden
 * Libby Bell – 15 points for causing an avoidable collision
 * Charlie Waters – 15 points for causing an avoidable collision AND start in the rear for the Round of Sweden