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Morbidelli clinches Speedcar title

Vitantonio Liuzzi won today's final race of the Speedcar season in Bahrain, while Gianni Morbidelli clinched the title in fifth place

Morbidelli went into the reverse grid race one point ahead of reigning champion Johnny Herbert and his task was made a lot easier when Herbert was tapped into a spin at the start by Ramez Azzam.

The Italian maintained fifth place in the race while Herbert charged back up from 11th, but the Briton could only make it as far as his tail and Morbidelli soaked up the pressure to clinch the championship.

"I'm extremely happy because it was hard," said Morbidelli. "This weekend we were not very competitive but we did it, and this is the most important thing.

"During the race I was sure Johnny was fast and when I saw him in the mirror I understood that my life was going to get difficult! I just focussed on my race and tried to do as few mistakes as possible."

Jean Alesi started last, courtesy of his blown engine in yesterday's race, but jumped the rolling start and passed the entire field before the first corner. When he came in for his inevitable drive-through penalty, he left Tomas Biagi in the lead from Hasher Al-Maktoum and Liuzzi third.

Liuzzi caught and passed both cars ahead of him and eased away to victory.

"I had a clean and controlled race," said Liuzzi. "I was trying to save the tyres because yesterday we had a problem in the last 10 laps. I think we did the best we could do this weekend with a first and a third."

Pos Driver                    Team                       Time
 1. Vitantonio Liuzzi         UP Team              41m02.174s
 2. Tomas Biagi               Palm Racing              3.453s
 3. Hasher Al-Maktoum         UP Team                  4.936s
 4. Nicolas Navarro           Durango                 10.277s
 5. Gianni Morbidelli         Palm Racing             12.117s
 6. Johnny Herbert            JMB                     12.464s
 7. Chris Buncombe            West Tec                19.899s
 8. Christopher Zoechling     Continental Circus      22.644s
 9. Marchy Lee                HPR                     29.194s
10. Jean Alesi                HPR                     35.642s
11. Massimo Cioci             Durango                 44.595s
12. Heinz-Harald Frentzen     Continental Circus      52.811s

Retirements

    Damien Pasini             JMB                     12 laps
    David Terrien             West Tec                11 laps
    Ramez Azzam               Scuderia Giudici         7 laps
    Gianni Giudici            Scuderia Giudici         7 laps

Fastest Lap, Liuzzi 2m07.487s on lap 4

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