Fabrizio Giovanardi claimed his first FIA ETCC pole position of the season in Imola this afternoon. The last time he was on pole was nearly two years ago, the 21st September 2002 in Pergusa.

Today Giovanardi has topped an Alfa Romeo perfect trio, with his AutoDelta team-mates placed second (Gabriele Tarquini) and third (Augusto Farfus).

At the beginning of the session Rickard Rydell set a provisional pole position at 1:59.684, the first driver to break the 2:00 barrier, and Giovanardi clocked a provisional second-fastest lap in 1:56.761.

The Alfa Romeo man managed to improve a first time to 1:59.359, claiming a provisional pole, but a few minutes later he was ousted by Tarquini’s 1:58.924.

Other drivers managed to go under the 2-minute mark – Rydell (1:59.684) and Priaulx (1:59.929) – but nobody was able to remove Tarquini from the pole until Stefano D’Aste hit the tyres at the Villeneuve chicane and made them rolling right in the middle of the track. Which forced the race director to red-flag the session with ten minutes left.

As soon as the session resumed, Fabrizio Giovanardi claimed pole position for good with a lap in 1:58.460, while Augusto Farfus completed the Alfa Romeo trio at the top clocking a 1:59.111 good enough for the third position on the grid.

Oregon Team’s Salvatore Tavano and Luca Rangoni also benefitted from the pause, and on new tyres they set the fourth and fifth fastest times (1:59.254, and 1:59.482). However they were finally demoted when Jordi Gené claimed fourth position at 1:59.221.

Like in the free practice sessions, the best BMW (Andy Priaulx’s) was only ninth, behind Rydell’s SEAT and the excellent Honda Accord of Alessandro Balzan. The two Müllers were further back: Jörg 11th and Dirk 19th, his car plagued by gearbox problems.

In Imola, the three AutoDelta Alfa Romeo 156 cars are running with a modified front suspension. The new components have been tested last Wednesday in Vallelunga and it use has been authorized by the FIA Stewards, after they received the written approval of all the other competitors, and after they heard the opinions of the FIA ETCC Technical Delegate and a representative of Michelin.

The change concerns the mounting points of the front suspension, and has been authorized for safety reasons.