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Giovanardi tops Brands Hatch test as Airwaves impress

BTCC News | Tue 24th March 2009

VX Racing's Fabrizio Giovanardi continued his strong pre-season form by setting the fastest time at today's official BTCC test at Brands Hatch.

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Giovanardi's time of 48.835 seconds was inside Yvan Muller's eight year old lap record on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit and was enough to put the Italian driver at the top of the combined times at the end of the day.

The Airwaves BMW team was on form at their local track ahead of the opening rounds of the championship, with drivers Jonathan Adam and Rob Collard second and third quickest respectively. Collard was quickest of all the drivers in the afternoon session, but Adam's time from the morning was fractionally faster. Airwaves BMW Team Principal David Bartrum said, “Today’s results in testing at Brands Hatch were very positive. As it’s our local track we are always confident of running well here, and we know it also favours the strengths of the BMW 320si. However, both Jonny and Rob really kicked it up a gear and showed that they will be serious contenders for race honours when the real action starts. In the morning we set up Jonny for pure speed and Rob worked through a programme of different settings. In the afternoon we switched that around and the results speak for themselves, both drivers really underlined their ability when given the opportunity to go for it. Now everyone at Airwaves BMW is looking forward to the first round at Brands and we hope we can put on a great show for the fans at our home round.”

Giovanardi also completed the most laps of any driver during the course of the day, with 139. His VX Racing teammate Andrew Jordan was close behind with 133, followed by Team RAC's Colin Turkington on 131. John George completed the fewest laps of the drivers present at the test, with 62.

Noticeable through their absence from the final official test ahead of the new season were both Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing SEAT Leons and Paul O'Neill in the second of the Sunshine.co.uk Honda Integras.

Click here for the morning session's times

Click here for the afternoon session's times

Click here for the combined times from both sessions

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