Fabrizio Giovanardi was a little surprised to claim Team Mulsanne’s best result of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) season in the opening race in Slovakia.
The double British Touring Car Champion was on blistering form, cutting his way through from the sixth row of the grid to take fifth at the chequered flag, just two tenths adrift of Aurelien Comte’s Peugeot 308 ahead.
It marks a notable upturn in form for the Italian, with 11th his next best result of the season in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.
“I will say that I am a bit surprised,” admitted Giovanardi to TouringCars.net after the race.
“I don’t understand why in qualifying we are not as fast as we are in the race, which has [also] happened in Vila Real and at the Hungaroring. It’s a question mark.”
Whilst admitting it was nice to be able to compete wheel-to-wheel at the front, Giovanardi also felt the top three had more performance in hand if required.
“Yes, but I think the first three cars had the pace to go faster. When we restarted after the safety car they jumped [ahead].”
The second qualifying session of the weekend gets underway at 14:10 BST.