Ng, Ma & Fabiani granted permission to race

The three drivers who missed the 107% qualifying time have been given permission to take part in tomorrow’s races, with Hong Kong drivers Philip Ma and Charles Ng as well as Italian Fabio Fabiani starting from the back of the grid.

Generally the stewards have always granted permission for those the are outside of the 107% to take part, regardless of their performance throughout the other sessions, but last time at Suzuka the first exception to this trend of 2011 was made as Fabiani was not allowed to race after several transgressions in free practice, then in the Proteam Racing BMW 320si.

Both Fabiani (now at Engstler Motorsport) and race-by-race entrant Philip Ma are competing in the older normally aspirated BMW 320si, and don’t run the latest 1.6 litre turbocharged engines that the other BMW drivers have, and so have a power disadvantage in the first instance on the rest of the field.

2010 Asian Touring Car Series Champion Charles Ng has shown good pace in the turbocharged BMW of Engstler Motorsport, but was the first to be caught out by the wet conditions and was unable to set a time when the circuit dried out later on in Q1.

With Fabiani being granted permission to start, all the 37-year-old Italian from Ravenna has to do is finish one of the races to win the WTCC’s Jay-Ten Trophy for older specification cars. SUNRED driver Aleksei Dudukalo currently leads the Jay-Ten standings but hasn’t scored any points in the category since July since he switched to the new 1.6 litre turbo engine in his SR León from the 2.0 TDI.

This is Fabiani’s last race of the season as he hands over the BMW 320si to Jo Merszei at Macau, so it will be the Italian’s last chance to secure the series lowest profile title.