Fabrizio Giovanardi stuns with drive through the field to fifth

Fabrizio Giovanardi scored Team Mulsanne’s best result of the season and his and the team’s first points of the season with a strong drive from 12th on the grid to finish fifth in Race 1 in Slovakia, biting at the heels of the Peugeot 308TCR of Aurélien Comte up the final lap.

The Italian made a great start in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR and was quickly up to seventh, and then picked off the two Hondas of Tom Coronel and Yann Ehrlacher on his way to fifth in the classification.

“I drove my heart out today, I had to make up seven places and it was not easy,” said Giovanardi to TouringCarTimes. “The car is good in race trim, but obviously I had to be very careful with tyre management and treat them carefully. Keeping the tyres in a decent shape throughout the race was key to this result.”

“I am very happy for the team and for my fans. Romeo Ferraris and Team Mulsanne deserved this, most of them were nearly in tears because we put everything we had into this project, we kept it all together in the difficult days and this is a good reward. A huge thank you to everyone at home and on track for making this possible.”