James Thompson and N.Technology came down from their Imola high with a bump after a bruising encounter in the latest World Touring Car round at Monza.

After his triumphant victory in the San Marino round of the series, Thompson headed to the team's home race high in confidence, but also laden with success ballast.

However, after struggling in qualifying to place the Honda Accord Euro R 13th on the grid, Thompson was tagged into a spin through the first corner funnel. Collected by several cars as he slid back onto the circuit, Thompson was forced to retire his heavily damaged car.

Starting from the back for the second outing, Thompson rallied hard to finish a fine 11th place, a remarkable achievement given the amount of repair work the team had to do between the races. Naturally, Thompson paid tribute to their efforts.

"The boys performed another miracle today. They did a fantastic job to ensure that we were able to take part in the second race considering the damage. It was a shame that we didn't have the opportunity to compete in race one, but we demonstrated that we can fight through the field, so I am pleased with race two; it was a good race.”

Team manager Andrea Muller was also proud of the team for getting Thompson's car up and running again so quickly.

"We had a very good start in the second race. To take 11th position is a good result as we were compromised by the incident in the first race. I want to thank the team for a great job in getting the car ready for race two. James drove really well to make up so many positions."