Alfa Romeo bounced back in style at Silverstone this afternoon with a 1-2-3-4 finish in race one helping to close the gap to BMW in the driver's and manufacturer's championships.

A win in race one an a third place in race two allowed former FIA European Touring Car Champion Gabriele Tarquini, who can also count on Silverstone knowledge as also a previous BTCC champion, to close up to within two points of series leader Dirk Muller.

Meanwhile after claiming maximum points haul in race one, and with race two's 1-2 finish for SEAT locking BMW out of the high points scoring positions, today's encounters have allowed the Alfa Romeo Racing Team to bounce back right into the title hunt.

RACE 1

Alfa Romeo had a perfect result in round 5 of the FIA WTCC at Silverstone. All four of the team’s drivers finished ahead of the rest of the field resulting in an all-red podium. Gabriele Tarquini, got a good start from the pole and despite efforts from James Thompson, did not give away his lead. Thompson and Fabrizio Giovanardi battled for second position. After a poor start, Thompson, who had the heaviest of the Alfa cars, lost a place to Giovanardi but on lap 4 he made reclaimed it. Augusto Farfus completed the Alfa Romeo quartet finishing fourth.

Andy Priaulx had a fantastic start, pushing his BMW 320i through to second place but was subsequently overtaken by the Alfa cars. He crossed the finishing line in fifth place, 4.386 seconds behind the leader of the Alfa pack. SEAT drivers claimed the remaining positions in the points: Peter Terting finished 6th; his team-mates Rickard Rydell and Jason Plato had a very physical battle, finishing 7th and 8th respectively, with the Briton claiming pole on the reverse grid for Race 2.

On the penultimate lap, Alex Zanardi and Rob Huff made contact. Zanardi suffered the worst as he spun into the gravel and didn’t re-join, whereas Huff managed to continue and was classified in 13th spot. The race for the other two Chevrolet drivers had an ended early as Alain Menu and Nicola Larini clashed whilst trying to avoid a wayward car during the first lap.

Ford scored their first Manufacturers’ Championship point as Thomas Jäger crossed the line 18th. The second Ford, driven by Thomas Klenke was 19th; an ecouraging result for the team.
 

The best of the independent competitors was Tom Coronel, finishing 14th overall in his SEAT Toledo Cupra, just ahead of his GR Asia team-mate Valle Mäkelä.

RACE 2

SEAT Sport clamed their first win of the FIA WTCC at Silverstone today. Rickard Rydell was the victor of a thrilling race with team-mate Jason Plato right behind him in second place. The SEAT cars did not have a great start as Andy Priaulx jumped them on the starting grid. The reigning FIA European champion looked set to secure his first win of the season until he was forced out of the race following a puncture to his front right tyre with three laps to go, leaving Rydell to drive for the win. Of the remaining BMW cars, Dirk Müller was the best and classified 6th.

Alfa Romeo driver Gabriele Tarquini made his second visit to the podium with a 3rd place. He, Terting and Thompson were involved in an incident on lap 4 which saw the latter forced into the gravel, where he remained. The Stewards put the blame on Tarquini, who will be dropped by ten places on the starting grid for the next round. Later Terting was involved in another collision, when Jörg Müller sent him into a spin to grab 7th position.

Larini and Zanardi did not take the start, due to the consequences of their Race 1 incidents. The Chevrolet team repaired Alain Menu’s car just in time for him to begin the second race from the pit lane. It was an impressive performance as he worked his way through the field, and crossed the line in 13th place, setting lap times which were only one second off the top men’s pace. Team-mate Huff collided with García after the Spaniard spun during the first lap and neither driver could continue.

The Fords improved one position apiece from the early race, completing their most successful event so far. Jäger finished 17th – scoring a second point in the Manufacturers’ Championship – and Klenke 16th. Marc Hennerici extended his lead in the Independents’ Trophy even further. He and Coronel were fighting hard to gain maximum points from Race 2 but it was the Wiechers-Sport BMW that finished ahead – in an excellent 9th place overall – when Coronel’s SEAT dramatically burst into flames at the end of the race due to engine an engine failure.