Fabrizio Giovanardi proved the fastest man in Imola this afternoon, the Italian claiming his second consecutive pole position at the circuit, after that in took last year’s FIA European Touring Car Championship.

In all the sessions the Alfa Romeo Racing Team driver was half a second faster than the rest of the field, and in qualifying he went to top of the timesheet in the early stages, clocking a time of 1:59.132 and demoting his team-mate Augusto Farfus who had set a provisional pole with a lap in 1:59.577.

Giovanardi, a former double FIA European Touring Car Champion with Alfa Romeo in 2001 and 2002, managed to drastically improve his time within the final five minutes to ensure that he remained there. His best lap was 1:58.573 - over half a second ahead of Antonio García’s best time for second place.
 

Jordi Gené looked as though he would begin tomorrow’s first race in second place until the BMW Team Italy-Spain driver, García set a time just 0.158 seconds quicker on his last lap. The qualifying session ended with drivers from three different Manufacturers – Alfa Romeo, BMW and SEAT – at the top.

Andy Priaulx spun at Villeneuve half way into the session but rejoined and jumped from twelfth to sixth on his last lap. Farfus and Gabriele Tarquini occupy fourth and fifth places respectively. However the latter will be dropped by ten places on the grid, due of the penalty for the incident with Terting at Silverstone.

Roberto Colciago continued to impress by qualifying seventh in his JAS Motorsport Honda Accord, while his team-mate Adriano De Micheli was the fastest of both, the Independents Trophy and the Italian Superturismo Championship, as well as qualifying 12th overall. Alain Menu qualified 17th, the best of the Chevrolet drivers and 1.977 seconds slower than Giovanardi. Ford drivers, Thomas Klenke and Thomas Jäger were 26th and 27th quickest. However, the latter will start from the back of the grid due to an engine change occurred in the morning, between the free practice sessions.