Giovanardi wants to leave Plato behind

Fabrizio Giovanardi says now is the time to overtake Jason Plato at the top of the Dunlop British Touring Car Championship leaderboard and wave “bye-bye to him”.

Vauxhall driver Giovanardi took his fifth win in nine races at Croft last Sunday to reduce what had been a 24-point gap to Plato after Brands Hatch’s opening rounds in April to just two.

His victory came in the day’s third race – going into it he had fallen 16 points adrift of Plato after a problematic race two in which he finished only sixth after a mid-race collision with Colin Turkington’s Team RAC BMW.

The Italian, now with one win more than Plato, said: “It was great to win after the nightmare in the second race. I was really, really low, but when I’m low the pressure builds up in me like a champagne bottle.
“This win is important for me, for the crew, for everyone. Now I just have to keep my head and finish every race with points.
“Before I was happy to stay behind Plato and let him carry maximum ballast. Now, maybe it is time to gain a lot of points and say bye-bye to him! He is strong so I have to be careful not to get into any trouble.”

Meanwhile, young British team-mate Tom Chilton is eager to bounce back after a difficult time at Croft saw him drop behind Matt Neal to fourth in the standings. He could only manage a best result of seventh in race three after coming from the back of the field following a mechanical retirement in race two.

He added: “I’m upset about that, but we ended up changing stuff on the car and it went a lot better. We were struggling at the beginning of the meeting but at the end, I was right there with Matt Neal and I was reeling them back in; that’s a really good positive to take away.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I do; eat, sleep and breath motor sport. Obviously I’m going to be chatting to the team quite a lot about this weekend before Oulton Park, but I’m really looking forward to getting out again. I like anywhere I can race a car and Oulton Park is no exception.”