|
 December
11th, 2006 - The past weekend the popular automobile exhibition
"Motor Show" opened its 31st edition in the fair district in
Bologna, Italy.
Being Bologna the birthplace of Alessandro Zanardi, his presence there
is a tradition and also this year the moments to meet him were many.
On Friday at first he had a meeting with the readers of the Italian
sport newspaper "Gazzetta dello Sport", then he presented his
new book "Alex guarda il cielo" written together with his
friend Dr.Costa.
On Saturday he was at the Palazzo dei Congressi being guest of the popular celebration "Caschi d'Oro" organized by the Italian weekly
Autosprint, he gave the "Casco d'Argento" award to Giancarlo
Fisichella (below) and had a nice chat live with Michael Schumacher not present
there but well visible on a giant screen.
The presence of Alessandro at Motor Show was not limited to pubblic
relations only since he drove his BMW 320si in the "Shell
Arena" in occasion of the "Bomb Boogie Eurotouring"
challenge.
On the short track obtained in the outside area of the Motor Show many
WTCC stars and prestigious guest coming from the MotoGP battled giving a
nice show for
the huge crowd on the stands.
In the qualifying heats Alessandro took part to the "Yellow Group"
and had to face Roberto Colciago (SEAT León), Gabriele Tarquini (SEAT
León) and Augusto Farfus (Alfa Romeo 156), while the "Green Group"
was composed by Nicola Larini (Chevrolet Lacetti), Jorg Muller (BMW
320si), Luca Capirossi (SEAT León) and Jörg Müller (BMW 320si).
Unluckily Farfus and Colciago resulted to be unbeatable and then Zanardi
and Tarquini were eliminated while in the other group Marco Melandri
caused a big surprise being the winner passing to the semi-finals
together with Larini while Muller and Capirossi were eliminated.
The competition was won by the young Brazilian Augusto Farfus for the
very last time at the wheel of his N.technology Alfa Romeo 156 - the
next year he will be a BMW Team Deutchland regular driver in the WTCC-
after two exciting final heats with Roberto Colciago.
At the end of the challenge Alessandro said: "The 320si has
proved to be very competitive in its WTCC debut season, winning both
drivers' championship and constructors' one. Unfortunately, the Motor Show
arena turned out to be unfavourable for rear-wheel drives, whilst
front-wheel ones gained advantage from a better grip on the humid track.
Jorg Muller experienced my same grip problems and we both did not
succeed in reaching the final. My compliments to Augusto Farfus, who
concluded with this victory an amazing season".
|
