Dramatic racing at Oulton Park yesterday saw VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi emerge on top of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Drivers Championship for the first time in his BTCC career.
Rain-drenched fans gave the Italian a standing ovation after he came within a hair’s breadth of his sixth 2007 win in the day’s second race. The Vauxhall works driver pushed leader Colin Turkington from lap one, finishing just 0.046s behind the Team RAC driver, putting Giovanardi 12 points ahead of main title rival, Jason Plato.
The lead was wiped out in a split second though, when Mike Jordan slammed into the Vauxhall Vectra as he tried to avoid a spinning Matt Neal in the last race of the day.
Giovanardi had to watch from the pit-lane as Plato finished 2nd to square the points halfway through the season, with the VX Racing driver leading the championship courtesy of his greater race win tally.
Team-mate Tom Chilton finished all three races in point-scoring positions, meaning Vauxhall now leads the Driver, Manufacturer and Team Championships with 15 rounds to go.
Fabrizio Giovanardi #5“I am annoyed because I had some room to breath with a 12 point gap and now I don’t. In the end though, I really don't care about leading the championship at this moment in time. There is the hunter and the prey, and I want to be the hunter! That's how I think.
“I’m not worried because our car is fast everywhere and this was meant to be one of SEAT’s best circuits. It looks good for the rest of the season.”
Tom Chilton #7
“I love racing in the rain because you can feel the car more, but you have to hold yourself back; it's easy to aquaplane at 140mph and go off! You get a real buzz because you can hardly see where you're going. You're just constantly playing with the brakes.
“I don’t like the safety car though; I get bored! I like racing and being in the action but behind the safety car you’re just sitting and weaving your tyres.
“I’ve definitely taken a step forward with my development of the car this weekend. I’ve had an extremely bad bunch of luck in the last couple of rounds.”
BTCC Drivers Championship 20071. Fabrizio Giovanardi (149); 2. Jason Plato (149); 3. Matt Neal (97); 4. Colin Turkington (93), 4. Tom Chilton (87)
BTCC Manufacturers Championship1. Vauxhall (324); 2. SEAT (295)
BTCC Teams Championship1. VX Racing (226); 2. SEAT Sport UK (223); 3. Team Halfords (170)
BTCC Provisional Round 13 Race Result1. Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic), 2. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), 3. Colin Turkington (BMW 320si), 4. Matt Neal (Honda Civic), 5. Mat Jackson (BMW 320si); 6. Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra), 7. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon), 8. Mike Jordan (Honda Integra)
BTCC Provisional Round 14 Race Result1. Colin Turkington (BMW 320si), 2. Fabrizio Giovanardi (Vauxhall Vectra), 3. Mike Jordan (Honda Integra), 4. Matt Neal (Honda Civic), 5. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon), 6. Mat Jackson (BMW 320si), 7. Darren Turner (SEAT Leon), 8. Adam Jones (SEAT Toledo), 9. Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra)
BTCC Provisional Round 15 Race Result1. Mat Jackson (BMW 320si), 2. Jason Plato (SEAT Leon), 3. Darren Turner (SEAT Leon), 4. Gordon Shedden (Honda Civic), 5. Adam Jones (SEAT Toledo), 6. Tom Chilton (Vauxhall Vectra), 7. Tom Onslow-Cole (BMW 320si), 8. Matt Allison
