news touring cars 30th June 2002:  FIA European Touring Car Championship, Anderstorp ( Sweden ), Rounds 9 & 10

race 2 ( round 10 )
 

The sun came out for race two. With the top six reversed, Tom Ferrier started from pole with Jordi Gene alongside. Gene got away quickest, leading Ferrier into the first bend. At the end of the opening lap Gene and Ferrier both run wide allowing Jorg Muller into the lead. Further back Tommy Rustad and Eric Cayrolle clashed, causing Larini to slide down the field as he avoided becoming involved. By the end of the lap Rydell leads Jorg Muller, Hanson crashes his Volvo and Ekblom moves up to third. Fourth place is fought over by severn drivers. De Simone fends of Giovanardi , who in turn is being harried by Tom Coronel with Peter Kox, Eric Cayrolle, Dirk Muller and Nicola Larini tight in behind. The fourth lap sees Giovanardi pass De Simone for fourth, while lap 5 sees Larini past Kox into seventh and then taking Coronel for sixth the next time round, Eric Cayrolle meanwhile, pulls up with suspension damage, legacy of his lap one tangle with Tommy Rustad. Lap 8 sees Larini into fifth, deposing De Simone, while at the front Jorg Muller has closed down Rydell's lead and is now on the Volvo driver's tail. Lap nine saw the Nordauto Alfa drivers swap position as Larini gets past Giovanardi into fourth. Positions stayed the same until the last lap. Three corners from home Jorg Muller squeezed past the Volvo to claim BMW's first win of the series as well as breaking Alfas stranglehold after nine races. Fredrik Ekblom followed the leaders home to claim his first podium finish, while Larini ran wide on the final bend allowing his team mate to dive through and claim three points. After the race Fabrizio Giovanardi commented: “It was not really a lucky weekend. I made a mistake in the qualifying session and had a problem with the exhaust. However, the second row on the starting grid was enough. In the first race, I was not as fast as Nicola. I just tried to follow him and pushed him for the last three laps. It was not enough to overtake him. In the second race, we tried to change the set up from wet to dry. But it was wrong and it was difficult to do a good race”. Meanwhille a much happier Nicola Larini, winner of race one: “Since the beginning of the weekend, I have a good feeling and the car had a good set up. We chose a very low downforce, there was nearly nothing at the rear, which made it really difficult to drive at the beginning of the first race. I had problems with Rydell for the first three laps and then I could pull away. I also had a lot of oversteering when braking but when I warmed up the tyres, particularly the right side, the car was good. In the second race, I had a good start and I was third in the second corner. But a car in front of me spun off and Fabrizio was close to me. We were really close together in the next corner. I was on the outside where it was wet and I went straight on the grass. Due to this, I lost 15 positions. I was however able to recover to 4th position and for the last laps, I tried to keep the position but it was impossible. I was going too fast at the last braking point and I went straight. In the end, it made me lose just one point.”

race 2 result:

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	CAR	TIME	LAPS	GAP	KPH	BEST
1	42	Jorg MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	22:25.537	13		139.99	1:42.361
2	60	Rickard RYDELL	SWE	Volvo S60	22:26.182	13	0.645	139.92	1:42.396
3	10	Fredrik EKBLOM	SWE	BMW 320i	22:26.450	13	0.913	139.90	1:42.457
4	1	Fabrizio GIOVANARDI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	22:33.153	13	7.616	139.20	1:42.681
5	2	Nicola LARINI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	22:37.334	13	11.797	138.77	1:42.049
6	43	Dirk MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	22:40.807	13	15.270	138.42	1:42.553
7	7	Tom CORONEL	NED	BMW 320i	22:41.425	13	15.888	138.36	1:43.348
8	9	Peter KOX	NED	BMW 320i	22:41.736	13	16.199	138.33	1:43.038
9	5	Jordi GENE	ESP	BMW 320i	22:42.243	13	16.706	138.27	1:42.884
10	20	Tom FERRIER	GBR	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	22:42.744	13	17.207	138.22	1:42.998
11	8	Duncan HUISMAN	NED	BMW 320i	22:46.349	13	20.812	137.86	1:43.465
12	15	Luis VILLAMIL	ESP	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	22:46.519	13	20.982	137.84	1:42.817
13	3	Romana BERNARDONI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	22:54.745	13	29.208	137.02	1:43.908
14	6	Fabrizio DE SIMONE	ITA	BMW 320i	17:28.267	10	3 LAPS	138.22	1:43.549

not classified:

14	Paolo RUBERTI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	9:24.550	5	D.N.F.	128.33	1:43.794
16	Eric CAYROLLE	FRA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	7:07.581	4	D.N.F.	135.55	1:44.308
61	James HANSON	GBR	Volvo S60	1:51.662	1	D.N.F.	129.76	1:51.662
11	Tommy RUSTAD	NOR	Nissan Primera		0	D.N.F.	N/A

Fastest Lap:  Nicola Larini  Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:42.049 

The day started off wet and cold, with the BMW drivers trading fastest times in the rain hit warn-up session. Fredrik Ekblom eventually coming out on top with a fastest lap of 1:52.885, a fraction ahead of Jorg Muller, Tom Coronel and Dirk Muller. Quickest of the front wheel drive brigade was Tommy Rustad's Nissan Primera with a 1:53.970.

The rain had stopped by the time the lights went green, but on a still wet track, Larini made a clean start to lead away from Rydell, Ekblom and Ferrier. However Ferrier was quickly bumped down to seventh as Giovanardi and both the Mullers got past him before the end of lap 1.

Lap 2 saw Ekblom slide off at turn one and rejoin at the rear. Dirk Muller took Giovanardi for third and James Hanson squeezed past Tom Ferrier for sixth. The next lap saw Dirk Muller leave the track, allowing Giovanardi back into third. After the race an angry Muller accused the Alfa pilot of punting him off.

By lap 5 Larini had streched out a small lead, Giovanardi, Jorg Muller and Hanson were closing up on second place Rickard Rydell. Muller got past the Italian, but ran wide allowing the Alfa driver to hang on to third spot. Two laps later Giovanardi was past the Volvo and up into second. Meanwhile Jordi Gene had taken sixth off Tom Ferrier.

Larini kept his advantage over team mate Giovanardi to the flag, James Hanson slid off, dropping down the order, allowing Tom Ferrier to come home in sixth and score his first series points.

race 1 result:

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	CAR	TIME	LAPS	GAP	KPH	BEST
1	2	Nicola LARINI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	24:42.633	13		127.05	1:53.161
2	1	Fabrizio GIOVANARDI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	24:44.084	13	1.451	126.92	1:52.446
3	60	Rickard RYDELL	SWE	Volvo S60	24:49.030	13	6.397	126.50	1:52.538
4	42	Jorg MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	24:50.414	13	7.781	126.38	1:52.902
5	5	Jordi GENE	ESP	BMW 320i	24:51.841	13	9.208	126.26	1:52.627
6	20	Tom FERRIER	GBR	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	25:00.464	13	17.831	125.54	1:54.428
7	6	Fabrizio DE SIMONE	ITA	BMW 320i	25:05.386	13	22.753	125.13	1:54.274
8	9	Peter KOX	NED	BMW 320i	25:06.325	13	23.692	125.05	1:54.359
9	7	Tom CORONEL	NED	BMW 320i	25:06.592	13	23.959	125.03	1:53.833
10	61	James HANSON	GBR	Volvo S60	25:06.916	13	24.283	125.00	1:53.378
11	10	Fredrik EKBLOM	SWE	BMW 320i	25:09.267	13	26.634	124.80	1:53.177
12	15	Luis VILLAMIL	ESP	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	25:10.365	13	27.732	124.71	1:53.752
13	16	Eric CAYROLLE	FRA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	25:12.374	13	29.741	124.55	1:53.855
14	11	Tommy RUSTAD	NOR	Nissan Primera	25:12.985	13	30.352	124.50	1:53.381
15	14	Paolo RUBERTI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	25:17.411	13	34.778	124.13	1:54.478
16	18	Salvatore TAVANO	ITA	Honda Civic Type-R	25:20.906	13	38.273	123.85	1:53.020
17	3	Romana BERNARDONI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	25:28.950	13	46.317	123.20	1:54.861
18	8	Duncan HUISMAN	NED	BMW 320i	25:54.096	12	1 LAP	111.88	1:54.029
19	30	Jens EDMAN	SWE	Volvo S60	20:12.811	10	3 LAPS	119.47	1:57.343

not classifield:

12	Chris GOODWIN	GBR	Nissan Primera	6:11.837	3	D.N.F.	116.90	1:58.134
43	Dirk MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	3:53.804	2	D.N.F.	123.95	1:53.784

Fastest Lap:  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:52.446  130.07mph

After claiming pole position at all four previous rounds this year, Championship leader Fabrizio Giovanardi, struggled after an early off, eventually lining up on the second row, with team mate Nicola Larini, visiting Anderstorp for the first time, going on to claim his first pole this year.

On his first flying lap Giovanardi left the circuit, got his Alfa 156 stuck in mud and had to wait some time before a tractor could drag him out and he could rejoin the qualifying session.

Larini, meanwhile, had set provisional pole time with a lap of 1:41.081. However the Volvo's, on home soil were pressing him hard, James Hanson climbing into second place half a second off the Alfa driver, before Rickard Rydell broke through the 1m 40s barrier with a time of 1:40.884 to head the time sheets. Larini responded with a 1:40.321 which good enough to put him back at the top, half a second clear of Rydell, and although the Volvo driver improved his time just before the flag dropped, Larini's lap was good enough to claim pole, by 0.096sec.

With ten minutes left Giovanardi had got back on track, posting a time of 1:41.173 to jump him up to third place. Tom Ferrier in the DART Alfa 156 put in a blinding lap of 1:40.986 snatch the position away and although Giovanardi improved his time at the death it was not good enough to beat Ferrier's time and he had to settle for fourth.

The BMWs meanwhile ferociously swapped times with each other, Peter Kox in the Carly Motors-Team Isert car in amongst the leading BMW drivers for the first time. Dirk Muller briefly held second fastest time but eventually had to settle for a third row slot, fractions behind fastest BMW driver Fredrik Ekblom. James Hanson lined up in seventh place, splitting the BMW ranks ahead of Muller's team mate Jorg Muller and the 320i's of Jordi Gene and Peter Kox.

Of the other runners, Jans Ederman making his series debut in the Flash Racing Volvo S60 suffered electrical problems all session, setting the slowest time of the session, while Luis Villamil, despite posting 14th time, will start from the back of the grid as his Bigazzi team changed his Alfa's engine before the race, after previously changing it at the last round in Jarama.

Not taking part in the session were both the CiBiEmme Hondas which suffered engine failure and Chris Goodwin's RJN Motorsport run Nissan Primera.

grid:

POS	DRIVER	NAT	CAR	TIME	LAPS	GAP	KPH
1	Nicola LARINI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:40.321	12		144.43
2	Rickard RYDELL	SWE	Volvo S60	1:40.417	9	0.096	144.29
3	Tom FERRIER	GBR	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:40.986	13	0.665	143.48
4	Fabrizio GIOVANARDI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:41.009	9	0.688	143.45
5	Fredrik EKBLOM	SWE	BMW 320i	1:41.014	12	0.693	143.44
6	Dirk MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	1:41.029	14	0.708	143.42
7	James HANSON	GBR	Volvo S60	1:41.171	13	0.850	143.22
8	Jorg MULLER	GER	BMW 320i	1:41.278	14	0.957	143.07
9	Jordi GENE	ESP	BMW 320i	1:41.327	12	1.006	143.00
10	Peter KOX	NED	BMW 320i	1:41.572	13	1.251	142.65
11	Paolo RUBERTI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:41.735	13	1.414	142.42
12	Fabrizio DE SIMONE	ITA	BMW 320i	1:41.895	12	1.574	142.20
13	Eric CAYROLLE	FRA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:41.974	13	1.653	142.09
14	Luis VILLAMIL	ESP	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:42.147	12	1.826	141.85
15	Tommy RUSTAD	NOR	Nissan Primera	1:42.182	10	1.861	141.80
16	Romana BERNARDONI	ITA	Alfa Romeo 156 GTA	1:42.361	14	2.040	141.55
17	Duncan HUISMAN	NED	BMW 320i	1:43.009	7	2.688	140.66
18	Tom CORONEL	NED	BMW 320i	1:43.260	4	2.939	140.32
19	Jens EDMAN	SWE	Volvo S60	1:44.817	6	4.496	138.24