Giovanardi wins wet race three

The double champion made a great start to move up to third by the first corner of the race, behind polesitter Paul O'Neill and James Thompson.

But, after the unfortunate O'Neill retired with a technical problem on his Tech-Speed Honda, Giovanardi was able to take the lead with a stunning move that began on the outside of Sunny In, and was finally completed three corners later after he and Thompson's Team Dynamics Honda had run side by side.

Thompson finished second with Stephen Jelley taking third in his WSR BMW - his third time on the podium in a day.

Fourth was Vauxhall's Andrew Jordan, ahead of Jason Plato's RML Chevrolet and Colin Turkington's championship-leading WSR BMW.

Turkington's chief title rival Matt Neal was battling with Plato for fifth for most of the race's green flag laps, but was tapped by his arch rival at Clervaux on lap 14 and spun to the infield. He finished eighth and now lies 25 points behind Turkington in the standings.

A stop-start race included three safety car periods, the first when Adam Jones hit the barriers at Hawthorn on lap one, the second due to a Clervaux incident that involved Martin Johnson and James Nash, and the final one after David Pinkney crashed heavily into the tyre barriers at Tower bend.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   35m21.211s
 2.  James Thompson       Honda       +  2.144s
 3.  Stephen Jelley       BMW         +  2.693s
 4.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall    +  3.362s
 5.  Jason Plato          Chevrolet   +  6.951s
 6.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +  7.878s
 7.  Rob Collard          BMW         + 11.718s
 8.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    + 12.632s
 9.  Jonathan Adam        BMW         + 13.092s
10.  Tom Chilton          Ford        + 13.869s
11.  Martyn Bell          Honda       + 34.348s
12.  John George          Honda       +   1 lap

Retirements:

     Adam Jones           SEAT       10 laps
     David Pinkney        Honda       9 laps
     Paul O'Neill         Honda       9 laps
     James Nash           Chevrolet   3 laps
     Martin Johnson       Vauxhall    3 laps
     Tom Onslow-Cole      Ford        2 laps