Italian clinches Touring Car crown

Vauxhall´s Fabrizio Giovanardi won his second consecutive British Touring Car title despite putting in his worst performance of the season at Brands Hatch on Sunday. We told you on Friday that the championship had gone down to the wire, but Giovanardi was the hot favourite.

SEAT´s Jason Plato was an outside chance, but failed to take advantage of Giovanardi´s poor showing. If Plato had picked up maximum points, Giovanardi would have needed nine points to win the championship. The Italian only managed to pick up one point after damaging his car in the first race, missing race two because of an engine problem and only scored his point in the final race by setting the fastest lap.

Plato failed to capitalise though, as he recorded a retirement, a fifth and 13th place in the three races. The Englishman´s poor performance meant he also missed out on second place in the championship to BMW´s Matt Jackson.

“I have never had such a bad day on the track but still come out feeling delighted,” said champion Giovanardi.