Fabrizio Giovanardi bounced back from an awful start in the opening race of the weekend at
Brands Hatch to make a winning start to his defence of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship.
In a race held in tricky conditions at the Kent circuit following overnight rain and a mid-race shower, the Italian came home ahead of poleman
Mat Jackson and arch rival
Jason Plato to secure the first win of the new campaign and put himself top of the pile in the standings.
Giovanardi himself had qualified in second place on the grid, but got a terrible start off the line as Jackson led the field into Paddock Hill Bend for the first time, with
Colin Turkington climbing up to second and Plato moving into third. By the end of the opening lap, Giovanardi had got back ahead of Plato into third although the two BMWs out front were already breaking away. Further down the order, Erkut Kizilirmak suffered a spin coming out of graham Hill Bend to drop to the back of the order.
Giovanardi soon found himself in second place when Turkington suffered a spin on lap two, losing the rear of the Team RAC
BMW under braking going into Graham Hill and going off onto the grass, dropping down to 20th place in the process. If left Jackson with a lead of more than three seconds after just two laps, with Giovanardi second and Plato third. Behind the podium runners, Darren Turner was fourth ahead of
Tom Onslow-Cole and Gordon Shedden.
While Jackson held his comfortable early advantage, there were battles aplenty down the field with Martyn Bell forced into retirement after being tagged by a spinning Alan Taylor and both BTC Racing Lexus' being early casualties. Stephen Jelley was another enjoying a baptism of having been forced wide at Clearways while dicing with Mike Jordan and Jason Hughes. It left the former F3 racer outside the top ten as a result.
