WORLD TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP ALFA ROMEO SCORES A ONE-TWO-THREE IN SILVERSTONE QUALIFIERS

The qualifying laps for the third date on the World Touring Car Championship calendar to be fought out at Silverstone were run today (Saturday May 14). The official Alfa 156s of Gabriele Tarquini, James Thompson and Fabrizio Giovanardi carried off the first three positions on the starting grid. Best time was Tarquini in 1'25.639”, followed at 16 hundredths of a second by Englishman Thompson and at 1 tenth of a second by Giovanardi. The Alfa Romeo Racing Team’s three official drivers got the better of Priaulx’s Bmw (1'25.856”) and Terting’s Seat (1'25.952”). The fourth Alfa driver, the young Brazilian Augusto Farfus, also turned in a fine performance, finishing on the third row with the sixth fastest time (1'25.989”). The qualifying stages ended a very upbeat day for Alfa Romeo which had already shown how highly competitive its cars were in the two free practice sessions. This is the first pole of the season for the Alfa Romeo Racing Team, and it stands alongside Thompson’s victory and Tarquini’s second place in the first of the season’s appointments at Monza.
"Winning pole is always a gratifying result”, says Tarquini, “but to have my team mates alongside me on the starting grid augurs really well for the race. It was clear in the free practice that the Alfa 156s were ideally suited to the track: however, the distances between the cars are very limited and in the race it will be important to get off to a good start and stay in front as far as the first bend which, as always, will be critical".
Tomorrow (Sunday May 15) will see the warm-up (from 8 to 8.15 a.m. local time, + 1h for Italy), with race 1 and race 2 starting 2.10 p.m. local time.

Qualifying at Silverstone
1. Tarquini (Alfa Romeo) 1'25.639”
2. Thompson (Alfa Romeo) 1'25.655”
3. Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo) 1'25.783”
4. Priaulx (Bmw) 1'25.856”
5. Terting (Seat) 1'25.952”
6. Farfus (Alfa Romeo) 1'25.989”
7. Plato (Seat) 1'26.067”
8. Rydell (Seat) 1'26.154”
9. Garcia (Bmw) 1'26.175”
10. Gene (Seat) 1'26.315”

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