Photo: BTCC Media

Giovanardi takes pole at Thruxton

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Vauxhall driver Fabrizio Giovanardi has taken pole position in Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship qualifying at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire.

Italian ace Giovanardi, currently second in the championship after two wins at Rockingham a fortnight ago, took what is the first BTCC pole of his career in a time of 1m17.476s – just 0.027s clear of SEAT driver Darren Turner.

Third was Mike Jordan with a time of 1m17.708s in his Eurotech/John Guest-Speedfit team’s Honda Integra, and fourth, in his Vauxhall Vectra, Giovanardi’s team-mate Tom Chilton (1m17.800s).

Series leader Jason Plato was back in seventh in his SEAT Leon, just ahead of reigning champion Matt Neal, eighth in his Team Halfords Honda Civic.

Surprisingly, Independents points leader Mat Jackson, fifth overall in the championship and a winner here for the past two years in SEAT’s Cupra series, was only 12th fastest in his Jacksons MSport BMW, almost two seconds from Giovanardi’s pole time.

From pole position, Giovanardi knows he has a great opportunity to close the 18-point gap to series leader Plato: “I am really pleased with my performance. My car is carrying an extra 36kgs of success ballast and when my team told me my time on the radio it was unbelievable. We also believe that our car has very good tyre wear which will be important for tomorrow’s three races.”

Turner, still hunting his first BTCC race win and eager to improve on his eighth place in the championship, said: “It’s disappointing to miss out on a second consecutive pole by such a small margin, particularly after I’d been fastest in both practice sessions, but at least we are bang on the pace. I’m confident that over a race distance we’ve got the Vauxhalls beaten. Fabrizio won’t be getting an easy time off me tomorrow.”

Jordan, the oldest driver in the championship just turned 49 and seeking to give an older BTC-spec car a rare victory in this year’s championship said: “I’m delighted with that. We knew from the Integra’s results from the last two years with Team Halfords that it’s a beauty at Thruxton and it was down to me to do the rest. I’ve got the record already as the oldest winner in the BTCC aged 48 and I’ll be out to set a new record tomorrow – I still feel as vigorous as all these twenty or thirtysomethings around me.”