By winning the final two two races of the season held at the Vallelunga circuit, near Rome, last weekend, Sicily's Salvatore Tavano has clinched the inaugural Trofeo Abarth 500, the new Italian promotional formula featuring the Abarth 500 Assetto Corse. He won Race 1 ahead of Lombardy's Francesco Iorio, who takes third in the Championship, and Race 2 ahead of Veneto's Nicola Baldan, who finishes runner-up in the Trophy standings. In this first season of the Abarth single-make series, Tavano impressively won nine of the 12 races, while Baldan took two victories and Villa grabbed one.

The first edition of the Trofeo Abarth 500 went to a driver who, despite being only 29 years old (he was born in Syracuse on 13 March 1980), has a broad experience. He indeed won in single-seaters (Italian F3 and Formula 3000, in which he finished fourth in the 2001 European series, winning at Zolder) and in Touring cars. He was a works driver for Alfa Romeo, with whom he won the 2003 Italian title in an Alfa 156 GTA, before competing in the World Touring Car Championship, in which he won one of the rounds held in Mexico in 2006. Last year, he was entered in the International GT Open Championship, in which he took his Ferrari F430 GT to GT2 class victory at Valencia.

In Race 1, Tavano made a good start from pole position and kept first place until the finish line, followed by Iorio. Behind them, Baldan had a poor start and was passed by Rizzoli. Ivan Capelli finished at a good fifth place.

Having posted the fastest last time in the first race, Tavano started Race 2 from pole position again, with youngster Alex Campani beside him. At the first braking into the Cimini curve, Andrea Rizzoli and Manuel Lasagni went off track causing the safety car to be deployed. Once the race resumed, Tavano was still leading, ahead of Campani and Baldan. Those three were all close together and in the last lap, Baldan overtook Campani. The third step of the podium was not enough for the latter to be crowned in the Under-23 category, in which Tobias Tauber scored more points than anyone else, finishing all the 12 races held to date. Former Ferrari driver Ivan Capelli also took part in this last round, finishing fifth in Race 1 and seventh in Race 2.

Trofeo Abarth 500 Round 6 - Race 1 classification: 1. Salvatore Tavano 11 laps in 21min09.811s - average speed 127.393kph; 2. Francesco Iorio + 1.279s; 3. Andrea Rizzoli + 6.018s; 4. Nicola Baldan + 6.766s; 5. Ivan Capelli + 8.850s; 6. Simone Di Luca + 13.471s; 7. Matteo Milani + 14.656s; 8. Manuel Lasagni + 14.893s; 9. Alex Campani + 24.648s; 10. Alessandro Frigerio + 29.465s. Fastest lap by Salvatore Tavano, 1min54.430s - average speed 128.515kph.

Trofeo Abarth 500 Round 6 - Race 2 classification: 1. Salvatore Tavano 11 laps in 23min03.409s - average speed 116.932kph; 2. Nicola Baldan + 0.518s; 3. Alex Campani + 0.889s; 4. Simone Di Luca + 3.133s; 5. Matteo Milani + 9.072s; 6. Francesco Iorio + 9.587s; 7. Ivan Capelli + 17.869s; 8. Alessandro Frigerio + 19.101s; 9. Franco Cimarelli + 22.574s; 10. Severino Nardozi + 24.220s. Fastest lap by Nicola Baldan, 1min54.487s - average speed 128.451kph.

Abarth 500-Selenia Trophy, final standings (after 6 rounds and 12 races): 1. Salvatore Tavano 245 points; 2 Nicola Baldan 202; 3. Francesco Iorio 114; 4. Andrea Rizzoli 96; 5. Manuel Villa 79. Under-23, final standings: 1. Tobias Tauber 208 points; 2. Alex Campani 193; 3. Simone Monforte 173; 4. Gabriele Larini 112; 5. Patrik Gobbo 100.