Imola proved one of the worst weekends of the year for the BMW national teams with third in race two for BMW Team Deutschland's Dirk Müller being the only podium position for a BMW 320i. Alfa Romeo drivers dominated both races with Gabriele Tarquini and Fabrizio Giovanardi first and second in both races and Augusto Farfus Jr third in race one.

However, the third place for Dirk came late in the day as a thirty second penalty was given to Augusto Farfus Jr for race two. He was in third behind his two team mates and after a safety car period he bunched up the following drivers to allow Tarquini and Giovanardi the chance to get away, an action which the Stewards felt justified a severe time penalty. The penalty dropped him down from third to 14th.

Dirk with 92 points has not only retained his lead in the Drivers' Championship but has moved slightly ahead of Jörg and Andy who now have the same total with 85 points each. Unfortunately Gabriele Tarquini has now moved into second place with 86 points. While BMW had a bad result, Alfa Romeo still have a lot to do in the Manufacturers' Championship as they are still 54 points behind.

While race one was fairly processional, race two was very eventful with Dirk being the only BMW national team driver to take the chequered flag. On lap three Andy Priaulx (BMW Team Great Britain) crashed out of race two after a collision with the Alfa Romeo driver Salvatore Tavano. A lap later Jörg Müller (BMW Team Deutschland) and Antonio Garcia (BMW Team Italy-Spain) both retired after an incident with the Alfa Romeo of Augusto Farfus Jr, with the German?s car being so badly damaged that it is likely the team will have to find him a new one for Oschersleben. However, the biggest accident happened to Alex Zanardi (BMW Team Italy-Spain) who suffered brake failure coming out of the last corner and onto the start/finish line. His car crashed into the wall and then when it bounced back onto the track was hit by two further cars causing the safety car to be deployed. Luckily Alex was unhurt and was even able to joke after the incident. Also involved in this accident was Tom Coronel (Carly Motors), but luckily despite suspension damage his BMW 320i was able to finish the race.

BMW Team Deutschland Team Manager, Charly Lamm, commented after the races: "This has been a very difficult weekend for all the BMW teams. After a bad qualifying we did the best we could in race one and the three championship contenders were able to score points. It was a shame that neither Andy nor Jörg were able to score points in race two due to accidents that were not their faults. Obviously Dirk is the happiest BMW driver as not only did he score points, but he also maintained his championship lead."

Results and Positions

BMW Team Deutschland - Schnitzer Motorsport No 42 - Jörg Müller (GER) Qual 11th - Race 1 - 7th - Race 2 - DNF - 40 kilos ballastNo 43 - Dirk Müller (GER) Qual 19th - Race 1 - 8th - Race 2 - 3rd - 40 kilos ballast

BMW Team Great Britain - RBM No 11 - Andy Priaulx (GBR) Qual 9th - Race 1 - 5th - Race 2 - DNF - 20 Kilos ballast

BMW Team Italy-Spain - Ravaglia Motorsport No 4 - Alex Zanardi (ITA) Qual 15th - Race 1 - 13th - Race 2 - DNF No 5 - Antonio Garcia (ESP) Qual 10th - Race 1 - 9th - Race 2 - DNF

BMW Privateer Teams Carly Motors - No 20 - Tom Coronel (NLD) Qual 14th - Race 1 - 12th - Race 2 - 11th Proteam M/sport - No 25 - Stefano D'Aste (ITA) Qual 16th - Race 1 - 15th - Race 2 - DNFCrawford Racing - No 27 - Carl Rosenblad (SWE) Qual 18th - Race 1 - DNF - Race 2 - 10th

Race 1 - 11 laps 1. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 22m 08.554s2. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA/Alf Romeo) 22m 09.128s3. Augusto Farfus Jr (BAR/Alfa Romeo) 22m 15.104s4. Jordi Gené (ESP/SEAT) 22m 15.615s5. Andy Priaulx (GBR/BMW 320i) 22m 15.949s6. Antonio Garcia (ESP/BMW 320i) 22m 16.984s 7. Jörg Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 20.786s8. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 22m 23.222s.

Race 2 - 11 laps1. Gabriele Tarquini (ITA/Alfa Romeo) 26m 16.027s2. Fabrizio Giovanardi (ITA/Alf Romeo) 26m 16.736s3. Dirk Müller (GER/BMW 320i) 26m 19.233s4. Jordi Gené (ESP/SEAT) 26m 19.854s5. Rickard Rydell (SWE/SEAT) 26m 20.256s6. Allessandro Balzan (ITA/Honda) 26m 23.528s7. Michele Bartyan (AUT/Alfa Romeo) 26m 26.400s8. Frank Diefenbacher (GER/SEAT) 26m 27.587s

Championship Positions - Drivers1. Müller D 932. Tarquini 863. Priaulx 852. Müller J 855. Giovanardi 626. Garcia 437. Farfus 358. Gené 339. Diefenbacher 2010. Coronel 1911. Thompson 1712. Rydell 1713. Mollekens 914. Tavano 615. Rangoni 516. Balzan 317. Zanardi 318. Bartyan 219. D'Aste 1

Manufacturers1. BMW 224, 2. Alfa Romeo 170, 3. SEAT 68.

Michelin Independents Trophy1. Coronel 1202. Balzan 913. Tavano 864. Rangoni 585. D'Aste 586. Bartyan 577. Rosenblad 548. Harrison 259. Ruokonen 2310. Grunert 15 11. Asch 1112. Klenke 813. Zwart P 714. Sardelli 515. Zwart K 3