A superb defensive drive from Fabrizio Giovanardi in Valencia this afternoon keeps the Alfa Romeo Racing Team driver in with a chance of claiming the inaugural FIA World Touring Car Championship title with just the visit to Macau remaining.

A sixth place in race one and the runner-up slot in race two gave Giovanardi 11 points from this afternoon's work in Spain, the same number as collected by championship leader coming into this round, Andy Prilaux, and two less than the similar BMW-mounted Dirk Muller, who now stands on top of the table. When the teams head off to Macau for the final pair of races on 20th November, Giovanardi will be five points away from the title lead, a gap that leads the title still well within the reach of the Italian veteran.

RACE 1

At their home race, SEAT Sport had two drivers celebrating on the podium. With a lights-to-flag lead, Jordi Gené claimed his first win of the season with team-mate Peter Terting crossing the line 3rd. The two SEAT León cars were divided by Dirk Müller who jumped back to the championship lead by just two points.

At the start, Dirk sped ahead of Terting but was forced wide and therefore remained in 3rd position. In the first corner, Huff and Farfus collided which left the 4th placed Chevrolet stranded in the gravel and the Alfa Romeo rejoining at the back after a visit to the pits. Also on the first lap, Giovanardi was chasing the Müllers with García close behind. Giovanardi made a move on the inside of Jörg and the German went wide and dropped four places to 8th. Lap 2 saw Funke and Hennerici involved in an incident which resulted in both of them being towed out of the gravel. In the next lap Jörg began to work his way through the field again as he overtook Larini. Meanwhile, Terting was being hunted by Dirk for 2nd position. Over the next three laps Terting had to defend extremely hard but Dirk successfully overtook the SEAT on lap 6. Fellow BMW Team Deutschland driver, Jörg, overtook Tarquini with Larini and García still close behind. Priaulx moved up to 4th on lap 9 after passing Giovanardi, and he held the position determinedly.

As the cars crossed the line into lap 10, there was an extremely tight battle between Jörg and Giovanardi. The fight ensued but it was Jörg who crossed the chequered flag one position ahead of the Alfa man to claim 5th. On lap 10 Tarquini, Larini, García and Zanardi were bumper to bumper. Larini overtook Tarquini for 7th. The latter then pushed García off the track and obtained a drive 30-second penalty after the race which demoted him to 16th. Marc Carol had a fantastic 10th place result on his first appearance in the FIA WTCC. Neither of the Ford Hotfiel sport drivers finished after being involved in separate incidents.
 

De Micheli of JAS Motorsport was the winner of the independent’s race. After the implementation of Tarquini’s penalty, he was 11th overall. Zanardi finished 8th winning pole for Race 2.

RACE 2

Jörg Müller was victorious in the second race of the day as he cruised across the finish line over seven seconds ahead of the rest. Behind him though was a spectacular fight. Fabrizio Giovanardi, Andy Priaulx and Dirk Müller all are in contention for the drivers’ title and caused nail biting moments for much of the race. They finished in the order with less than one second separating them. Alessandro Zanardi began from pole with Nicola Larini also on the front row. Off the line Larini was passed by several drivers. Giovanardi overtook Priaulx, who was then involved in some contact with Dirk and dropped to 6th after loosing places to Terting and Larini. Jörg stormed through and by the end of lap 1 he had jumped from 4th to 1st where he remained. During lap 2 Dirk overtook Zanardi for 3rd. De Micheli was fighting among the works drivers in lap 3 as he challenged Priaulx for 5th but then the Italian independent was involved in two incidents with Terting and Gené. De Micheli obtained a drive-through penalty for clashing with the German. On lap 5 action stepped up a gear as Giovanardi overtook Dirk for 2nd. While they battled, Priaulx had overtaken Zanardi and caught up on the pair. Furthermore, over the subsequent laps of the race, García had also managed to latch on to the front pack.

On lap 8 Dirk tapped Giovanardi and temporarily lost control of the rear of his car. This allowed Priaulx to slot into 3rd and the Briton then had Giovanardi in his sights. Priaulx made a move for 2nd but in fact lost out as Dirk slipped past him on the inside. The positions did not remain this way for long however. Lap 8 saw Dirk try to push past Giovanardi but this was not to be, he was out-braked by Priaulx and then passed by García. García was swiftly demoted back to 5th on the next lap though, as Dirk once again focused on overtaking the BMW Team UK car. The final two laps provided a spectacular show but the top four positions remained. Zanardi finished ahead of García in 5th. Marc Carol put in another impressive performance. The young Spaniard finished as the best SEAT driver as well as in the points after crossing the line 8th.