GIOVANARDI "WORLD CLASS", SAYS DOUBLE CHAMP THOMPSON
SEAT superstar James Thompson has branded Fabrizio Giovanardi
"a world class driver", despite the Italian driver
having suffered an awkward start to his career in the Dunlop
MSA British Touring Car Championship.
Thompson says the hurdle of having to learn the UK circuits
in a short space of time is masking Giovanardi's abilities.
It's a problem the Briton himself suffered when he switched
to the World Touring Car Championship in 2005.
Giovanardi, a multiple touring car title winner at international
level, has scored Vauxhall's best result so far in 2006 -
a second place finish at Oulton Park - but that has been his
only podium result to date.
But said yorkshireman Thompson: "It is not easy to come
and race against and be competitive against people who've
raced on the British tracks for years, particularly in qualifying.
It is bloody hard.
"Remember, due to the testing restrictions in the BTCC,
we only get two 40 minute sessions on the Saturday morning
before qualifying. Fabrizio needs to use those two sessions
to learn the track, but we already know which way it points
and use that time to dial in the car's set-up.
"He's always playing catch-up and people underestimate
how difficult it is to get just 20 laps around a track and
then be compared to the likes of me or Jason Plato or Matt
Neal.
"Look at Tom Kristensen - he's a seven times Le Mans
24 Hours winner, but he didn't pull up any trees when he first
came to the BTCC in the Nineties and that's when we were allowed
to go testing away from race weekends. Yet nobody would deny
that now he is a great driver."
Thompson, from Harrogate, says now he's got a season of racing
in the WTCC under his belt, his circuit knowledge has made
it a lot easier to perform on the world stage. Indeed, he
currently lies second in the world rankings in addition to
his fourth place overall in the BTCC in which he's contesting
six of ten non-clashing events for SEAT.
And the 2002 and 2004 BTCC champion pointed to the most recent
WTCC rounds, in Brazil, to underline how good a driver Giovanardi
is - the Italian contested the event as a one-off for the
JAS Honda team.
"Nobody had seen the track so it was the same for everyone,"
added Thompson. "Fabrizio turns up and bang - he's fastest
of all in the first practice session. You don't win as many
titles as he has without being a world class driver."
Thompson also expects his former BTCC team Vauxhall to overcome
problems with its Astra Sport Hatch and return to winning
ways. Its cars, even with Giovanardi at the wheel of one of
them, have struggled to maintain consistent front-running
speed in the opening 12 rounds. But this weekend (15-16 July)
comes Croft in North Yorkshire - a track where the Astras
won two out of three races in 2005.
"Vauxhall and Triple Eight Engineering which runs the
cars have had almost seven weeks to put things right,"
said Thompson. "Having been part of that team before,
I know they will have all been working damn hard and Croft
is probably the type of circuit where that car will work well."
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