Two out of two for Giovanardi

The Italian Vauxhall driver, who won the title last year, started from pole position and led all the way to the flag, taking victory by a scant second in a race that remained dry throughout, unlike the earlier encounter.

The win was Giovanardi's 14th in the BTCC and increased his championship lead from two points to 10 over Mat Jackson, who finished fourth.

The front-runners ran largely in formation during the early stages, save for the SEATs as Darren Turner got sideways through Graham Hill Bend on the opening lap, allowing his team-mate Jason Plato to nip by on the run out of the corner.

That all changed though on the re-start following a mid-race safety car period. Gordon Shedden made a lightning getaway in his Team Dynamics Honda and nosed inside Jackson at Paddock Hill bend. Plato followed him through at Druids, demoting the BMW Dealer Team UK driver to fourth place.

All three drivers maintained their positions to the finish, with Jackson having to fend off a determined attack from Turner's SEAT, who also set the fastest lap of the race.

Tom Onslow-Cole took sixth - ahead of his Vauxhall team-mate Matt Neal after pulling a neat cut-back move on the former double champion at Paddock and then stealing the inside line at Druids on lap 18 of 27.

Eighth place went to Colin Turkington, who had started way back in 20th after his race one problems. But the Ulsterman's progress was not incident-free.

Turkington found himself in a battle with Tom Chilton for eighth with six laps left. The WSR BMW man brushed against Chilton's Team Dynamics Honda before taking the position into Surtees.

Chilton attempted to re-take the place, but tagged the right-rear of Turkington's car with his own left-front wheel into Clearways, resulting in his wheel being knocked askew and forcing his retirement.

Turkington had passed Steven Kane for ninth at Clearways two laps before his Chilton incident, forcing the Motorbase BMW driver wide. As Kane attempted to resume his racing line, though, he found Mike Jordan was already there, resulting in a massive shunt into the pit wall.

Motorbase had earlier lost Rob Collard's car from the race when he had a coming together with Stephen Jelley at Paddock and went off while both were trying to pass the elder Jordan, in the accident that triggered the safety car.

Jordan, whose son and team-mate Andrew finished 14th after starting from the pit-lane, was in for a spot of luck as his number was picked out by winner Giovanardi to start from pole position for the final race of the day.

Pos Driver                 Car                 Gap
 1. Fabrizio Giovanardi    Vauxhall        27 laps                   
 2. Gordon Shedden         Honda            +0.942                    
 3. Jason Plato            SEAT             +1.413                    
 4. Mat Jackson            BMW              +1.671                    
 5. Darren Turner          SEAT             +3.587                    
 6. Tom Onslow-Cole        Vauxhall         +3.857                    
 7. Matt Neal              Vauxhall         +5.433                    
 8. Colin Turkington       BMW              +7.048                    
 9. Mike Jordan            Honda            +9.657                    
10. Adam Jones             SEAT            +10.402                   
11. Stephen Jelley         BMW             +10.937                   
12. Matt Allison           Chevrolet       +17.774                   
13. Jason Hughes           MG              +18.741                   
14. Andrew Jordan          Honda           +23.122                   
15. Harry Vaulkhard        Chevrolet       +23.909                   
16. Erkut Kizilirmak       Vauxhall        +34.380                   
17. Martyn Bell            Vauxhall        +34.730                   
18. Michael Doyle          Honda           +36.145                   
19. John George            Honda           +36.278                   
20. Alan Taylor            Honda           +36.370                   
                                       
Not classified                  
                                       
    Tom Chilton            Honda           23 laps
    Steven Kane            BMW             22 laps
    Rob Collard            BMW             17 laps
    Stuart Oliver          Lexus             1 lap
    Chris Stockton         Lexus       non-starter


Fastest Lap - Turner, 49.491s on lap 3.