Vauxhall’s double champ Fabrizio Giovanardi ended qualifying for tomorrow’s opening race of the British Touring Car Championship triple-header at Donington Park on pole position. Seconds later though he was dramatically relegated to 19th.
Having lapped the 1.9-mile circuit in 1min 13.171secs to edge out the sister Vectra of team-mate Andrew Jordan by 0.241secs, the Italian stopped his car on the weighbridge before returning to his garage.
Infuriatingly though for Giovanardi his car then refused to re-start and as a result he was stripped of all his times. The penalty promoted Jordan to his maiden pole position with the Chevrolet of Harry Vaulkhard eased up from third to second.
Fifer Jonathan Adam now lines up ninth in his BMW. The 24-year-old from Kirkcaldy, who finished second in the season-opener at Brands Hatch, clocked a best of 1:13.795s, 0.624s off pole.
“That just shows you how competitive the British Touring Car Championship is,” Adam said yesterday (Sat). “I’m just over half-a-second off pole, and I was 10th-fastest on the timesheets. It’s so competitive that the top 12 drivers are covered by less than a second.”
There was frustration too for the two leading drivers in the championship. Vauxhall’s Matt Neal, who leads Colin Turkington’s by six points, could only manage ninth-fastest while the former Knockhill instructor’s RAC BMW lines up eighth. Both though move one place up the grid after the dramatic penalty suffered Giovanardi.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said afterwards. “All I know is I was fastest in qualifying, then the car wouldn’t start. I’m not happy.”
JM