Photo: Superstars Media

Superstars heads to Imola for round two of 2012

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The International Superstars Series goes back on track at Imola this weekend, after the strong Monza premiere. The first race of the season saw more than 31 000 people watching the action live on track. Max Pigoli and Vitantonio Liuzzi shared the glory in the first weekend and the two are actually first and second in the championship respectively, the Jaguar driver ahead of the HRT third driver in the standings by five points.

Two serious championship contenders are behind the Monza winners; Thomas Biagi, who races for the all-new BMW Team Dinamic outfit, is 17 points shy of the leader, and is ahead of Andrea Larini by a mere point. The Tuscanian had looked strong all weekend, but failed to capitalize after a drive-through penalty following a contact with Nico Caldarola.

While Monza was a damage-limiting exercise for BMW, Imola should be less penalizing for the Bavarian manufacturer and Biagi will be determined to make up for the points gap opened by Pigoli and Liuzzi. Behind them, Francesco Sini could be the underdog, after a strong race two at Monza which showed the potential of the new outfit, Solaris Motorsport, and the Chevrolet Lumina which, although one of the oldest cars on the grid, still seems to be competitive.

Audi Sport Italia will be favored by the traction granted by the four wheel driven Audi RS5, which has more mileage under its belt and is likely to prove more reliable after a number of failures during the opening weekend. Both Gianni Morbidelli and Johan Kristofferson proved their speed in one of the worst tracks for Audi and could pull a surprise on their opponents.

New entries for this weekend will be former F1 driver Christian Fittipaldi, who replaces Mika Salo for Maserati, and Indonesian Ananda Mikola, the 2005 Asian Formula 3 Champion, who will drive a Ferlito Motors Jaguar XF-R.

Motorsport legends Mick Doohan and Alex Zanardi will be guests in the paddock on Sunday.

The first Free Practice session will start on Saturday at 10.35 CET, while the 30-minutes session will start at 17.20. The two races will be held at 11.15 (Race 1) and 16.15 (Race 2).