6th October 2002:  FIA European Touring Car Championship, Donnington Park ( England ), Rounds 17 & 18

Huisman took the lead at the start but dropped to third behind Jorg Muller and the fast starting Dirk when he missed the chicane on the first lap. Tarquini squeezed past Giovanardi and up into fourth, while Eric Cayrolle retired after a clash with Robert Collard.

Lap two saw Tarquini squeeze past Duncan Huisman and into third place, closing up onto Dirk Muller's tail. At Hollywood Tarquini hit Muller pushing the German BMW driver into a spin, which the following Giovanardi had to run wide to avoid, dropping him down to seventh.

Tarquini held onto second place, despite coming under heavy pressure from Duncan Huisman until the final lap, when the BMW driver squeezed past. Tarquini was demoted from third to seventh after the race, the stewards imposing a 25 second penalty for his first lap incident with Dirk Muller.

Lap four saw a recovering Giovanardi take James Hanson for sixth, but he had to wait until lap 11 before splitting the BMW pair of Jordi Gene and Tom Coronel, squeezing out Coronel to pass the line in fifth, which later became fourth when Tarquini was penalised.

Tarquini set the race's fastest lap with a 1m41.763s set on lap 3.

Gabriele Tarquini  “I have had a year off, so I am very happy to be back. The series is very good and I had a very good car. The only problem I had was at the end of the first race, when the throttle broke. In the second race, my rear suspension was not right and I also had brake problems after five laps. I got penalised and ended up seventh instead of third but it was my mistake and I accept the penalty. It is fun to drive the new Super 2000 cars.” 

Mauro Sipz ( Director, N-Technology ) “We have reached our target which was to win both the drivers and the manufacturers titles in the FIA European Touring Car Championship. The team, the drivers and my wife Monica did a great job. I am very happy for Alfa Romeo. It has been a difficult season and I think we could have won the titles before today. We have now won the ETCC teams/manufacturers and drivers championships for two consecutive years and next year, we will try to do it again!”

Fabrizio Giovanardi “It was the best weekend of the season for me! However the races were difficult. The handicap weight kept me off the podium. On Saturday I had problems with the set up as we used the same one we had in Pergusa. The car was not easy to drive in that conditions and I also did a couple of mistakes. But in the end I achieved my goal, which was to clinch the championship at the end of the first race.” 

Monica Sipz ( Team Manager, Team Nordauto ) “This Championship is the most important title in our team’s career. I would like to thank all the drivers: Roberto Colciago, Gabriele Tarquini, Nicola Larini and Fabrizio Giovanardi, for their excellent job and their professionalism.” 

At the lights Dirk Muller and Roberto Colciago clashed as they headed for the first bend. Colciago was forced off and as he rejoined Nicola Larini attempted to squeeze between him and BMW driver Duncan Huisman, resulting in Larini taking off and landing heavily. Larini and Colciago headed to the pits and while Colciago was able to rejoin after a tyre change, Larini's car was too heavily damaged to take any further part, while Colciago continued until pulling in to retire on lap 6.

This left Dirk Muller leading from Rikard Rydell and Fabrizio Giovanardi. Muller was able to pull away slightly from the Volvo, Rydell in turn easing away from the Giovanardi who was under pressure from Tarquini. On lap eight Tarquini passed the championship leader, but was unable to close in on the top two over the remaining five laps.

With fourth place and the title in the bag for Giovanardi, best private Alfa was Tom Ferrier who had steadily worked his way up through the field to finish eighth.

Giovanardi improved his time and with five minutes remaining he led an Alfa 1-2-3 followed by Tarquini and Colciago. However Dirk Muller with a blistering lap claimed the fastest time with minutes remaining and would start from his first ever ETC pole position.

After qualifying, the organisers received marshall's reports that Giovanardi and Tarquini had cut the chicane and their fastest times were disallowed, lifting Colciago onto the front row next to Dirk Muller. Tommy Rustad, Eric Cayrolle and Robert Collard also had their fastest times disallowed for the same reason.

Tom Ferrier failed to take part in the session due to a gearbox failure on his DART Racing run Alfa 156 GTA. Already out was Scottish driver Iain Inglis who had stepped into the AGS Alfa 156 GTA but in free practice he wrote the car off and took no further part in the event.