Italian maestro Fabrizio Giovanardi won the opening round of this year's Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship staged at Thruxton, Hampshire. The 2007 and 2008 champion was only confirmed with Uniq Racing with Triple Eight team on Friday and he used all his experience to bring his Vauxhall Vectra home in front of Jason Plato's Silverline Chevrolet Cruze and Mat Jackson's Airwaves BMW.
Giovanardi's 23rd career BTCC victory, though, was far from straight-forward. The two Honda Civics of pole man Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal held strong first and third places during the opening laps before both Team Honda Racing entries suffered dramatic tyre deflations. Neal managed to limp back to the pits and eventually rejoined to finish 12th, but Shedden's exit from the lead was rather more spectacular – the Scot's Civic skating across the wet outfield at high speed and striking a trackside barrier.
"I didn't expect the Hondas to be so quick but they were clearly more aggressive with their chassis set-up and paid the price for that," said Giovanardi who was quick to praise the efforts of his team. "Everyone has worked very hard to put this together so late - it nice to be able to repay them with maximum points."
Plato also admitted to adopting a cautious approach and was pleased with second spot. "We set the car up to finish the race rather than for ultimate pace - that's always the secret around this track which is so hard on tyres," said last year's runner-up. "Dunlop has done a fantastic job with the tyres but it's up to the teams not to take too many risks with their set-up. You can chase lap times but that's risky if you want to finish."
Jackson was equally pleased with the final position on the podium – more so as he spent the first half of the 16-lap showdown bottled up behind the two Team Aon cars of Tom Onslow-Cole and Tom Chilton. The two Ford Focus', though, also encountered tyre issues but not before the Airways BMW driver had battled his way past.
"It's really good to start the year with a podium," grinned Jackson who now will be hoping for an even better result in the second of today's three races when his fast-starting BMW lines up third behind Giovanardi and Plato.
1 888 I Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 16 -- 1m18.761s 2 2 Jason Plato Chevrolet Cruze 16 +3.260s 1m19.250s 3 5 I Mat Jackson BMW 320si E90 16 +6.456s 1m19.652s 4 29 I Paul O'Neill Honda Integra 16 +6.865s 1m19.453s 5 22 I Tom Boardman SEAT Leon 16 +9.387s 1m19.930s 6 88 I Philip Glew Vauxhall Vectra 16 +9.739s 1m19.922s 7 20 Alex MacDowall Chevrolet Cruze 16 +14.766s 1m20.014s 8 55 I David Pinkney Vauxhall Vectra 16 +24.711s 1m19.979s 9 28 I John George Honda Integra 16 +32.548s 1m20.857s 10 44 I Andy Neate BMW 320si E90 16 +36.496s 1m20.856s 11 27 I Martin Johnson Vauxhall Astra Coupe 16 +36.496s 1m21.554s 12 4 Matt Neal Honda Civic 16 +36.682s 1m19.031s 13 21 I Tom Onslow-Cole Ford Focus ST 15 +1m07.624s 1m19.855s 14 77 I Andrew Jordan Vauxhall Vectra 15 +1 Lap 1m19.315s
Not Classified - 23 I Tom Chilton Ford Focus ST 12 +4 Lap 1m19.795s - 98 I Matt Hamilton Honda Civic Type R 10 +6Laps 1m20.682s - 52 Gordon Shedden Honda Civic 7 +9 Laps 1m18.473s - 11 I Steven Kane BMW 320si E90 6 +10 Laps 1m19.978s - 99 I Shaun Hollamby VW Golf MK5 5 +11 Laps 1m22.481s - 6 I Robert Collard BMW 320si E90 3 +13 Laps 1m19.667s
