20th October 2002:  FIA European Touring Car Championship, Estoril ( Portugal ), Rounds 19 & 20

Dirk Muller, De Simone and Villamil ( Bigazzi Alfa Romeo 156 GTA ) did not take the start. Muller blew his engine in the first race, while De Simone and Villamil's teams were unable to repair their cars from the race one startline incident. Nicola Larini started from the pitlane, along with Tavano's Honda and Antonelli's Alfa.

With the grid reversed James Hanson started from pole, ahead of Tommy Rustad's Nissan. Both were slow to get away, allowing Jorg Muller to lead the field round the first lap, harried by Fabrizio Giovanardi and Tom Coronel.

Lap 2 saw Fabrizio Giovanardi squeeze past Muller and into the lead while Rydell jumped Coronel for third place. The three engaged in a re-creation of race one, bumper-to-bumper until Giovanardi pulled over on lap 7 with gearbox failure.

Jorg Muller went on to win his fourth race of the season and, with Nicola Larini unable to score more than one point, sealing second place in the drivers championship in the process. Tom Coronel and Fredrik Ekblom in second and third places made it an all-BMW podium.

The accident, caused as Larini was punted by Jorg Muller and spinning infront of the field, also eliminated the Alfas of Tom Ferrier and Luis Villamil as well as the BMW's of Duncan Huisman, Frederik Ekblom and Jordi Gene and the Honda of Salvatore Tavarno.

By lap two Jorg Muller and the recovering Rickard Rydell had passed Tom Coronel and closed in on race leader Fabrizio Giovanardi. This was the story of the race, the three running line astern to the finish ten laps later. Never able to get quite close enough to Giovanardi, Jorg Muller settled for the six points that would put him ahead of Nicola Larini in the hunt for second in the driver's standings.

Behind these three, Tom Coronel finished a distant fourth, ahead of Tommy Rustad who scored Nissan's first points of the season after withstanding race long pressure from James Hanson in the second Prodrive Volvo.

After the race the stewards slapped Jorg Muller with a thirty second penalty, blaming him for causing the startline incident, dropping him to fourth place.

Marco Antonelli was drafted in by AGS to drive their Alfa Romeo 156 GTA here in Estoril. The 38-year-old driver from Bologna has many years experience in the Italian Championship, however driving irregularly in recent seasons due to concentration on his own Super Production and Group N race teams. It is his European Touring Car Championship debut.

free practice

The first practice saw Fabrizio Giovanardi and Nicola Larini top the timesheets while the in second free session Jorg Muller pipped the two Nordauto drivers. Eric Cayrolle had a big off early in the first session and took no part until qualifying.

qualifying

Rickard Rydell took his first and Volvo's first pole position, one place better than the two outside row one slots he started from at Brno and Anderstorp. Rydell was aiming for pole from the start, immediately posting fastest time, with the chasing Giovanardi, Larini and Jorg Muller unable to get within half a second.

Fabrizio Giovanardi and the rest of the field closed up as the session wore on, but Rydell improved his time late on to put pole out of reach. With Giovanardi holding second, Tom Coronel was the fastest of the BMW drivers, but spun out late on and could not topple the newly crowned champion.

Eric Cayrolle took no part as his car was still being repaired from his morning accident. Tommy Rustad and Sandro Sardelli also did not leave their pit garage as they had suffered engine failures in free practice.