Giovanardi fastest in first practise

Fabrizio Giovanardi may have suffered a puncture but was still comfortably fastest in first HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship practice at Thruxton this morning. Reigning champion Giovanardi set a best time of 1m18.359s although later had to crawl nearly an entire lap around back to the pit lane when his Vauxhall Vectra VXR’s left-front tyre deflated entering the Goodwood corner.

But the Italian, four-times a winner at Thruxton last year, had set a lap that put him some 0.235s clear of the rest of the field. That’s despite the fact that, as championship leader, his car is carrying maximum success ballast – an additional 45kgs in weight.

Next up was the Team Halfords Honda Civic of Tom Chilton (1m18.594s) – always rapid at the high-speed Hants circuit – while third, following on from his super-strong showing at Donington Park a fortnight ago, was VX Racing’s Tom Onslow-Cole. Notably, less than a second covered Onslow-Cole down to 12th fastest Adam Jones’ Team Air Cool SEAT Leon.

Fourth was Donington winner Darren Turner’s SEAT Leon TDI, fifth Team RAC’s Colin Turkington – comfortably the fastest of the five BMW drivers on the track – and sixth Team Halfords’ Gordon Shedden.

There were dramas for several drivers: Steven Kane managed just four slow ‘out and in’ laps as his Motorbase BMW suffered power-steering pump failure and Chris Stockton’s session came to an early end when he tore the radiator and front splitter from his BTC Racing SEAT with a trip over the kerbs and grass exiting Church corner.

Meanwhile, 17th on his return to the BTCC was Stockton’s team-mate Gareth Howell.

The biggest scare by far during the session was that which befell Harry Vaulkhard – he first suffered a wild, high-speed spin exiting Goodwood corner in his Robertshaw Chevrolet Lacetti before then going through four 360-degree spins to the inside of Church, much to the bewilderment of the watching marshals.