The Alfa Romeo Racing Team bounced back into contention for the inaugural FIA World Touring Car Championship title at Istanbul yesterday, in some style.

One-two finishes in both races - rivals BMW and SEAT simply couldn't live with the Italian team's blistering pace - served to put Fabrizio Giovanardi just four points off the top of the drivers' championship leaderboard as the teams departed from Turkey, while in the Manufacturers' Cup, Alfa Romeo (200 points) are fifteen points adrift of BMW (215 points), while SEAT (147 points) fade away in third place. Chevrolet (54 points) and Ford (8 points) barely register on the score charts. Just two FIA WTCC rounds now remain, firstly at Valencia, Spain (2nd October), before finally the teams visit the famous Macau 'street' race (20th November).

Fabrizio Giovanardi (1st in Race 1 and 6th in Race 2) - “Our car was great this weekend and we did a good job in qualifying which put us in a fantastic position. Starting from 8th on the grid in Race 2 is always difficult because you have so many cars to overtake. I tried to overtake Zanardi and did not see García. The braking was very difficult with three cars entering the corner and I just touched Antonio (García) but I think it was a normal race incident. The title fight is really getting exciting. Four points is not a lot.”
 

Gabriele Tarquini (7th in Race 1 and 1st in Race 2) - “Race 1 was very unlucky for me because if it were not for the tyre failure I could have scored more points and helped Giovanardi in his fight for the title. It was a shame but I am happy the same problem did not occur in Race 2. The circumstances were different because Farfus and I had a gap from the others so I was not fighting as hard as I was in race 1.”

James Thompson (2nd in Race 1 and 4th in Race 2) - “It would have been such a fantastic result if we had managed a 1-2-3-4 in the first race; for the team and the championship. The car was brilliant in the second race after we made a few quick changes. I thought I could catch Alex (Zanardi) at the end but picked up a little vibration so decided to ease off slightly in order to avoid a puncture and finish the race.”
 
Augusto Farfus (8th in Race 1 and 2nd in Race 2) - “As a whole, this weekend was good for the team. It was unlucky what happened to me and Gabriele (Tarquini) in the last lap of Race 1 but starting on pole for Race 2 made it quite easy to manage and we did a good job.”