30.05.2005 Due to his incident with Alex Zanardi at Imola yesterday, Alfa Romeo's Augusto Farfus will now lose ten positions on the grid of the next race, with a further suspension hovering over him

Inquiries after the two FIA World Touring Car Championship races at Imola yesterday resulted in the stewards making several penalising decisions.

Roberto Colciago will lose ten grid position for the next race due to his incident with Jordi Gené in Race 1; Jason Plato received a similar penalty due to his collision with Alfa Romeo's James Thompson in Race 2. As for the incident between Alfa Romeo Racing Team pilot Augusto Farfus, and BMW's Alex Zanardi in Race 2, the Brazilian youngster will now lose ten positions on the grid of the next race, but furthermore if he is involved in a similar incident during one of the two following events, he will also be excluded from that race.

Alessandro Balzan has now been excluded from Round Eight of the FIA WTCC which took place at Imola yesterday. Post-race scrutineering discovered his car to be underweight. The decision means that he loses the ten points he gained by winning the 'Independents' category and thus he drops from a would-have-been third, to sixth position in the title bid.

The result means that runner-up Stefano D’Aste of Proteam Motorsport claims the maximum points and he now sits in ninth place.  Marc Hennerici still holds the lead of the Independent’s competition despite having a disappointing weekend.
 

SEAT's Jason Plato has received at grid position penalty due to his collision with Alfa Romeo's James Thompson  (above)

SEAT's Jason Plato has received at grid position penalty due to his collision with Alfa Romeo's James Thompson  (above)

Race One winner yesterday, Fabrizio Giovanardi leads his Brazilian Alfa Romeo Racing Team team-mate Augusto Farfus, who will now be penalised ten grid places at the next round for his incident with BMW's Alex Zanardi in  Race  Two

Race One winner yesterday, Fabrizio Giovanardi leads his Brazilian Alfa Romeo Racing Team team-mate Augusto Farfus, who will now be penalised ten grid places at the next round for his incident with BMW's Alex Zanardi in  Race  Two


He has 54 points, 19 ahead of second placed Carl Rosenblad while Tom Coronel, Valle Mäkelä and Salvatore Tavano all have 27 points a piece.

Fabrizio Giovanardi, the 2001 and 2002 FIA European Touring Car Champion for Alfa Romeo , finally got his FIA WTCC race-winning account off the mark yesterday with pole position after qualifying and then victory in the opening race held at Imola. “In the first race I managed to re-claim the lead by overtaking García and Priaulx so I got the result I was hoping for and I am extremely happy about that," commented the Alfa Romeo touring car veteran after the two races.

"In the second race I was not as lucky as I was in the first. I started behind everybody and unfortunately there was a lot of fighting in front of me so I lost some time. My tyres were getting worse so I could not push too hard. I was lucky in the last lap as Zanardi and Farfus went off,” Giovanardi concluded.
 

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29.05.2005

Fabrizio Giovanardi claimed his first FIA WTCC win of the season at Imola, although in the championship race Alfa Romeo lost some ground to BMW this afternoon

Report & Photos: FIA WTCC