Dominant Giovanardi wins again at Snetterton

Double BTCC champion Fabrizio Giovanardi made it two wins out of two at Snetterton, with a dominant victory in the second race of the day. The Italian was never troubled, to record his 21st victory in the series ahead of Colin Turkington and a resurgent Jason Plato, who fought through from the back of the grid to take third.

Despite the supremacy of Giovanardi, it was a poor race for VX Racing teammate and championship protagonist Matt Neal, who struggled home in 14th position, thus allowing Plato to close in on his third place in the series standings.

Victory for Giovanardi was never in doubt thanks to his perfect start, while behind Turkington preserved his championship leads thanks to second, with the stars of the race being Plato and James Thompson who met little resistance as they stormed through the field from the ninth and tenth rows of the grid.

While Neal jumped the start, earning himself a drive through penalty, at the front Giovanardi and Mat Jackson made a formation start, with Jonathan Adam slotting into third place thanks to the BMWs prowess away from the start line.

The BMW of Stephen Jelley wasn’t so lucky however, as he was turned around and dumped into the dust by Adam Jones on the first run through the Esses, spoiling the Team RAC driver’s race.

By lap five the Vauxhall’s lead was approaching 1.5 seconds, with Jackson, Adam, Turkington and Paul O’Neill running together in the second group on the road, until engine problems saw the Lacetti smoking its way back to the pit lane.

Further down the grid Thompson and Plato were cleaving their way through the pack, finding themselves in sixth and eighth by lap eight.

Under pressure from Turkington, Adam ran wide exiting the Esses on the eight tour, allowing the Northern Irishman and the following O’Neill to both dive past at the Bombhole. The Airwaves BMW continued to slide backwards at Russell, as Thompson demoted him to claim fifth, while at the front Giovanardi extended his lead to almost five seconds, as he enjoyed a peaceful drive in the Norfolk countryside.

Plato followed Thompson past Adam on lap eleven, also demoting Harry Vaulkhard on the same tour, before two laps later the Chevrolet also found its way past the Honda Civic exiting Sear Corner, as Thompson got caught up behind O’Neill.

The superior straight line speed of the Lacetti helped Plato up into third, as he passed O’Neill down the Revett Straight, with Thompson finding his way past later round the lap at Russell.

Ahead both Giovanardi and Turkington crossed the line alone, while Plato added a point for fastest lap to his third place haul. Honda’s new and old were fourth and fifth thanks to Thompson and O’Neill, another excellent result for the Techspeed team, with the Airwaves BMWs of Adam and Rob Collard taking sixth and seventh.

James Nash finished eighth, while ninth for Vaulkhard was good enough to grant the Bamboo Engineering driver pole position for the day’s final round, thanks to Allan McNish’s post-race draw. In tenth Gordon Shedden picked up points on his return to the series, ahead of teammate Jones who recovered from his first lap fracas.

Victory leaves Giovanardi just fourteen points behind Turkington, with the Vauxhall driver promising he will attack until the end, no doubt hoping his car remains as “perfect” in future rounds as it has been at Snetterton.

Second placed Turkington was happy with his work, saying; “It’s great to be on the podium again, it’s a great haul of points. Fabrizio’s pace is very fast, if we’d raced all day here we wouldn’t have caught him! I was more concerned about Jason (Plato) catching me.”