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Series leader Fabrizio Giovanardi says winning – not cruising for
points – is his main aim for the remainder of the season having seen
rival Jason Plato close up to him the HiQ MSA British Touring Car
Championship title race.
Italian Giovanardi spent last year closing down long-time leader
Plato before dramatically pipping him for the crown at the final round.
The
Vauxhall driver has got his title defence off to a perfect start and
has led since the opening round but, last time out at Donington Park,
Plato, in SEAT’s ever-improving new Leon TDI, took 12 points out of him
to emerge as his closest challenger.
The gap between them arriving at Thruxton this weekend is 16 points – equivalent to a race win.
Giovanardi
told BTCC.net: “This year we started better but if you watch the points
it is Jason who is now catching me. He was 30 points behind after the
first two race meetings and now it is down to 16.
“Now
I have to go and win. There are ten cars, maybe more, all very close in
performance which makes it more difficult to find that extra place and
a few extra points.”
Giovanardi predicts both
Plato and team-mate Darren Turner will become stronger as the season
progresses and the SEAT Sport UK team learns more about its TDIs which,
although successful in the World touring car series, are new to the
BTCC in 2008.
He added: “Last year I think really
from the start there were only the SEATs who we needed to beat. We were
ahead of the rest of the teams developing new cars. I was behind in the
beginning but I was able to catch Jason because our car became faster.
“But
this year I think the potential of the SEAT can be more than they have
shown. They had problems in the first two race meetings because they
didn’t know the cars and also there are the different tyres (Dunlops).
“Darren
Turner is very strong now but he just seems to be less lucky than Jason
with some problems with his car and maybe some small mistakes.
“I
hope they don’t become stronger, but even the other cars – the BMWs and
the Hondas – can also give us trouble. They have won races. Maybe at
the end of the season it will be between the two SEATs and us
(Vauxhall). It is quite early to say for certain.”
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