One-lap wonder Giovanardi takes pole at Thruxton

Sat 25th April 2009 Reigning BTCC champion Fabrizio Giovanardi needed just a single lap to secure pole position for VX Racing at Thruxton.

Giovanardi’s time of 1:17.985 was quicker than his best lap from the morning’s free practice sessions and was over three tenths of a second faster than his VX Racing teammate Matt Neal, who will line up alongside him on the grid for Sunday’s first race.

With just thirty seconds of the session remaining, it looked like a 1-2-3 for Vauxhall, until Jason Plato squeezed a quick lap from his Racing Silverline Chevrolet Lacetti, moving up from tenth on the grid to third. Andy Jordan ended the session in fourth, with Colin Turkington the quickest of the BMWs in fifth.

The fastest of the returnees to the series this weekend was Paul O’Neill, who took an impressive sixth position for Team Sunshine.co.uk. O’Neill, whose last race in the BTCC was a one-off for Motorbase Performance in 2007, also at Thruxton, was (once again) on the verge of tears as he emerged from his Honda Integra at the end of the session.

O’Neill said: “This one’s for everyone at the team. They said ‘do this’ and ‘do that’ and I thought they were having a laugh, but I did exactly what they said and it worked, and now I’m blubbing again!”

Adam Jones was seventh quickest for Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing, ahead of former champion James Thompson on his return to the series. Dan Eaves was ninth quickest in the second CZR SEAT Leon, with Mat Jackson tenth for RML in his first outing in the Chevrolet.

After such a successful season opener at Brands Hatch, Airwaves BMW pairing of Jonathan Adam and Rob Collard will have been disappointed with 11th and 12th on the grid respectively, although both are carrying ballast following their success last time out.

Team Aon drivers Tom Chilton and Alan Morrison continued to struggle in their Ford Focus STs, which were slowest through the Thruxton speed traps. Morrison’s Ford was 8.5mph slower than Jason Plato’s Chevrolet, which was quickest in a straight line. Chilton and Morrison will start 19th and 21st on the grid respectively.

21 drivers took part in the qualifying session, with just Nick Leason sitting it out for Team AFM.

After taking pole position, Fabrizio Giovanardi said: “We expected to be fast at this circuit after last year, but you never know. I had trouble in the second session, and the mechanics worked hard to get the car ready. One lap, pole position. I hope to finish all three races now.”

Round four of the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship is scheduled to start at 11.35AM on Sunday.