At the Dubai circuit, in the United Arab Emirates, in the last race of the European
Touring Car Championship yesterday, Alfa Romeo recorded two wins with Gabriele Tarquini’s
Alfa 156 Autodelta, so closing in sparkling fashion a season that had begun
equally well, with success in the first race at Monza.
Due to these results, Autodelta Squadra Corse, the official Alfa Romeo team in the European Touring
Car Championship, took the Team Title ahead of the BMW Team Deutschland, while
Tarquini, champion in 2003, held on to third place after a year that proved
to be one of the most difficult, competitive and uncertain of recent years.
The final rankings see the first three drivers separated by just five
points with the first two scoring equally. The new champion is BMW driver Andy Priaulx.
Of all the drivers in the frame for the title, Tarquini achieved the highest
number of outright wins. His Alfa 156 Autodelta took top step on the podium on
six
occasions, but to his results should be added the cars of his team-mates Fabrizio Giovanardi, the young Brazilian Augusto Farfus and the Englishman James
Thompson, lined up by Alfa Romeo Autodelta in four events.
Giovanardi recorded
one victory, one pole and two fastest laps; Farfus two poles and three fastest
laps; Thompson one win and one pole. Alfa Romeo came out top in pole positions
too: five of the ten events, against BMW’s three and Seat’s two.
In the two races fought out at the new Dubai circuit, the English driver James
Thompson took his Alfa 156 on to the podium twice, finishing both races in third
place. Priaulx finished second in race one and race two. Farfus placed fourth
in race one, while in race two a brush with another car opened his right-hand door
and slowed him up, forcing him into the pits. Giovanardi was unlucky, he had to
withdraw in race from owing to damage suffered in a collision, and in race two his
engine failed when he was in third position. |
