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Giovanardi wins bruising race one

Vauxhall's Fabrizio Giovanardi gave his chances of another British Touring Car title a boost by winning an incident-packed first race at Snetterton

Mat Jackson came through to second in the Silverline Chevrolet, with Paul O'Neill a delighted third in his Tech-Speed Honda Integra.

Front row starters Jason Plato and Colin Turkington both fell out of victory contention on a bruising opening lap.

Turkington had outdragged Plato into the first corner, despite Plato's best efforts to stop the WSR BMW getting heat into its tyres with a very slow formation lap.

Plato retaliated into the Esses further around lap one, but contact was made, sending Turkington into a spin. The touch also cost Plato momentum, allowing Jordan to try and take advantage on the exit of the corner, where another collision sent Plato skittering across the infield and let Andrew Jordan take the lead. While Turkington was able to continue in eighth, Plato had to pit and retire soon afterwards with a bent trackrod.

With James Thompson (Dynamics Honda) forced wide and down to fourth as he tried to drive around the outside of Jordan, Vauxhall moved into one-two formation, initially with Jordan ahead, but only for two laps before Giovanardi claimed the lead.

The Italian then pulled away, leaving Jordan to fend off the recovering Thompson, who finally slipped ahead into the Russell chicane at half-distance, only to slow and retire with a smoking car moments later.

Thompson's slowing Honda led to a rather over-cautious safety car deployment, but this mattered little to Giovanardi, who calmly pulled away at the restart.

It was bad news for Jordan though, as the young Briton spun at the Esses as he tried to resist huge pressure from Jackson, who went through to claim second.

O'Neill grabbed third with a great move on Jonathan Adam (Motorbase BMW), who then resisted the delayed Turkington over the final laps.

A first corner tangle sent title contender Matt Neal spinning to the tail of the field. He recovered to salvage ninth.

Pos  Driver               Car          Time/Gap
 1.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall   23m43.973s
 2.  Mat Jackson          Chevrolet   +  2.369s
 3.  Paul O'Neill         Honda       +  5.616s
 4.  Jonathan Adam        BMW         +  7.016s
 5.  Colin Turkington     BMW         +  7.243s
 6.  Stephen Jelley       BMW         +  7.722s
 7.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +  9.923s
 8.  David Pinkney        Honda       + 10.408s
 9.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    + 13.939s
10.  Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   + 14.384s
11.  Tom Chilton          Ford        + 14.778s
12.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall    + 21.273s
13.  John George          Honda       + 27.158s
14.  Martin Johnson       Vauxhall    + 50.869s

Retirements:

     Rob Collard          BMW        17 laps
     James Nash           Chevrolet  12 laps
     James Thompson       Honda      9 laps
     Gordon Shedden       SEAT       5 laps
     Jason Plato          Chevrolet  3 laps

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