Monza, Oct 20: Alessandro Zanardi comes back to motor racing 2 years after losing his legs in an accident.
Italian Alessandro Zanardi made his comeback to motor racing in the final round of the European Touring Car Championships at Monza, Italy on Sunday (October 19), two years after losing his legs in an accident. Driving a specially converted BMW, Zanardi qualified in 11th position on the grid in his first competitive drive since his near-fatal accident in a Champ Car Series race at the EuroSpeedway in Germany in September 2001. The 36-year-old drove a specially adapted BMW at Monza, with the throttle on the steering wheel and the clutch on the gear shift. In the first of the two races held on Sunday which were to decide the overall winner of the Touring Car Championships, Zanardi was unable to avoid a multiple pile-up, sustaining damage which forced him to retire from the race.


In the second race, Zanardi finished a creditable seventh behind team-mate Jorg Muller of Germany who was denied the overall title by third-place finisher Gabriele Tarquini of Italy in an Alfa Romeo.


Both drivers scored the same number of points, but Tarquini took the title by virtue of having won one more race than Muller this season.


Bureau Report