Salvatore Tavano upheld Alfa Romeo's honour on home turf, driving a factory-supported Alfa 156 in the FIA European Touring Car Cup, which was held at Vallelunga in Italy at the weekend. With a third and fourth place finish from the two 13-lap encounters he amassed eleven points, enough to allow him to claim fourth place.

With the FIA European Touring Car Championship evolving into a world series this year, the FIA brought the top competitors from the national touring car championships' across Europe together for a double-header at Vallelunga in Italy, reviving the now defunct touring car cup idea. Salvato Tavano - representing Alfa Romeo - turned in an excellent qualifying performance, putting the DB Motorsport run Alfa 159 onto the front row of the grid alongside the BMW 320i of fellow countryman and regular FIA WTCC racer Alex Zanardi, the gap between the two being 1.1 seconds. Andrea Larini placed the second DB Motorsport run Alfa Romeo 156 onto the sixth row of the grid.

From start to finish Alessandro Zanardi was ahead of the rest in Race One of the FIA European Touring Car Cup. He edged away gradually and crossed the finish line over 9 seconds in front of second placed Göransson. The final podium position went to Tavano who recovered well from straying wide in the first lap.

At the start, Hürtgen stalled from fourth on the grid. This caused Engström, Stureson and Nykjær to clash as they all moved wide in avoidance. Stureson could not continue and Nykjær rejoined the race after a visit to the pits to repair the damage obtained to his rear right wheel. Ukhov was also unable to get off the starting line. In lap one, Björk was having problems and in the process of trying to avoid it, Plato and Rangoni clashed, causing the latter to spin and unable to continue. Over the next couple of laps Tavano was chasing Plato for 4th and Göransson had Coronel in his sights for 2nd. Lap five saw both the SEAT cars being overtaken, with the Alfa of Tavano in between them. Also on lap five, Engström crashed into a barrier, skidded across the track and did not rejoin. Tavano and Coronel had a great fight on lap seven. The Italian made a move on the inside of Coronel and then fought off his attempts to regain the position. With the Alfa Romeo now ahead, the SEAT cars of Coronel and Plato were locked in a tough battle for 4th place. Tavano's team mate Andrea Larini eventually finished the race in 11th place.

In a thoroughly entertaining second race, Jason Plato was the victor for SEAT Sport UK. He finished ahead of West Coast Racing team-mates Göransson and Björk. Despite coming second, Göransson achieved enough points to be crowned European Cup champion. Off the line, Björk overtook Edman to take the lead. Zanardi was caught up in the middle of the pack and emerged 15th entering lap 2. On this lap Edman, who was lying 2nd made a mistake at Curvone and went wide, dropping to the back of the field. This left Plato to chase Björk for the lead which he duly did, eventually making a successful move on lap 4 and then staying ahead for the remainder of the race.
 

Lap 6 saw Coronel and Engstler engaged in a battle for third position which allowed Tavano and Göransson to catch up and join them in the bid for the podium place. Tavano made an attempt to overtake but was not successful and Göransson capitalised by making a great move to promote himself to 4th. The Swede then went on to claim 2nd spot after passing Coronel and Björk on lap 9. Tavano overtook Coronel on the next lap for 4th position which is where he finished. Zanardi fought his way through the field lap-by-lap and crossed the chequered flag in seventh place, which was enough to make him third in the overall competition.Larini again finished in 11th place. Six points awarded for third in race one, and five points for fourth in race two gave Tavano 11 points, and fourth place in the Touring Car Cup.

There were only four entries in the smaller 'Super Production' category. Lorenzo Falessi in the Errepi Racing Alfa 147 was the clear favourite, with competition coming from Lorenzo Pasquinelli in the Zerocinque Racing BMW 320i, and the Sport-Garage run VW Golfs of Russian drivers Sergey Krylov and Andrey Nikolaev. Falessi got his meeting off to a bad start, a crash meaning he failed to record a time in qualifying. However he was able to cruise to comfortable victories in both race. After starting up from the back in the opening race he stormed through to pass Pasquinelli for the class lead on lap 10, crossing the line 17 seconds ahead. When his BMW rival was eliminated during the opening lap of race two, Falessi cruised to a 38 second win over Krylov in the first of the two VW Golfs. Falessi posted fastest lap in both races. Two wins gave the Alfa Romeo pilot 20 points and the 'Super Production' title, six points ahead of Krylov and nine in front of Nicolaev. “It has been a very tough season for me and I haven’t participated in a lot of races," said Falessi afterwards. "We worked hard to re-build the car through the night so I was in with a chance today. I am very happy with this title and I have to say that this was my goal since I entered the event.”