Giovanardi takes Thruxton pole
Fabrizio Giovanardi will start the first of tomorrow's three British Touring Car Championship races at Thruxton from pole position. It is the Italian VX Racing star's first pole in the BTCC
Former European champion Giovanardi, who set the best time of the weekend so far with a 1:17.476, narrowly pipped the SEAT of Darren Turner by just 0.027 seconds. That is despite the Vectra carrying 36kg of ballast, while Turner's Leon is ballast-free.
Behind them in third was the BTC-spec Honda Integra of Mike Jordan. The Eurotech driver had predicted that Thruxton would deliver his best chance of victory this year, as five out of the last six BTCC races here have been won by an Integra.
Giovanardi's team-mate Chilton set the fourth-fastest time, ahead of WSR's Colin Turkington, who had the highest-placed BMW.
The German machine had been tipped to do extremely well around the high-speed Hampshire track, but all three rear-wheel drive 320sis appeared to be struggling with their tyres during Saturday running.
Current championship leader Jason Plato, carrying maximum ballast, will line up on the fourth row of the grid - alongside reigning champion Matt Neal.
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall 1:17.476 2. Darren Turner SEAT 1:17.503 + 0.027 3. Mike Jordan Honda 1:17.708 + 0.232 4. Tom Chilton Vauxhall 1:17.800 + 0.324 5. Colin Turkington BMW 1:17.906 + 0.430 6. Gordon Shedden Honda 1:18.023 + 0.547 7. Jason Plato SEAT 1:18.092 + 0.616 8. Matt Neal Honda 1:18.155 + 0.679 9. Gareth Howell SEAT 1:18.884 + 1.408 10. Tom Onslow-Cole BMW 1:18.998 + 1.522 11. Matt Allison SEAT 1:19.001 + 1.525 12. Mat Jackson BMW 1:19.328 + 1.852 13. David Pinkney Alfa Romeo 1:19.583 + 2.107 14. Eoin Murray Alfa Romeo 1:19.627 + 2.151 15. John George Honda 1:20.894 + 3.418 16. Fiona Leggate MG 1:21.091 + 3.615 17. Chris Stockton Lexus 1:21.284 + 3.808 18. Martyn Bell BMW 1:21.286 + 3.810 19. Richard Marsh Alfa Romeo 1:21.556 + 4.080 20. Simon Blanckley Honda 1:21.561 + 4.085 21. Erkut Kizilirmak Vauxhall 1:21.630 + 4.154 22. Jason Hughes MG 1:23.215 + 5.739 23. Rick Kerry BMW 1:25.756 + 8.280 24. Nick Leason Lexus 1:29.610 + 12.134
Share Or Save This Story
LIVE: F1 Miami Grand Prix updates - Antonelli tops first part of qualifying, Piastri scrapes into Q2
DS Penske in the points in Berlin Formula E opener
Why Norris expects F1 drivers to still “get penalised” for trying to go quicker after rule tweaks
F1 Miami GP: Norris leads dominant McLaren 1-2 in sprint race
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments