1996 Italian Superturismo Championship
The 1996 Italian Superturismo Championship was the tenth edition of the Italian Superturismo Championship. The season began in Mugello on 14 April and finished in [ACI ACI Vallelunga Circuit|Vallelunga Circuit|Vallelunga] on 6 October, after ten rounds.
Season summary
The season started with an unexpected double victory of Giovanardi in a semi-official Alfa Romeo. In the following 3 rounds, due to slow tracks and bad weather condition in Monza, Capello and his Audi were able to score 6 wins in a row.In order to avoid a strong dominance like in 1995, it was decided from the 4th round in Binetto to penalise Audi with 30kg extra bringing the weight from 1040kg to 1070kg. Thanks to this decision and together with the car developments, BMW emerged as dominant car winning 11 races on 12 until the end of the season. Only in race 1 in Imola, Capello was able thanks to his talent to achieve a victory with his heavier Audi.
In the last round in Vallelunga, BMW decided to add 3 more cars for Ravaglia, Winkelhock and Soper while Audi added 2 more cars for the new German champion Pirro and his team mate Peter but although a starting grid nearly close to the FIA World Touring Car Cup, none of those drivers was able to help the 3 contended.
BMW scored once again a double victory with Cecotto, but Capello thanks to a second and a third place was able to win the title. Naspetti after a race 1 finished only 6th due to a wrong tyre choice, tried his best to catch up Capello in race 2 but after a collision with Muller, he was penalized with a stop and go giving automatically the title to Capello.
Rinaldo Capello was the new Italian champion after the 2 titles in a row of Pirro, while BMW thanks to the 11 victories against 7 of Audi and 2 of Alfa Romeo was the constructors' champion.
Roberto Colciago was instead the privateers' champion with his Alfa Romeo.
Teams and drivers
Drivers changes
Changed CarsEntering Superturismo 1996
- Yvan Muller: French Supertouring → Audi A4 Quattro
- Johnny Cecotto: BTCC → BMW 320i
- Gordon De Adamich: CIVT → Alfa Romeo 155
- Emanuele Pirro: → STW
- Antonio Tamburini: No full-time drive
- Gabriele Tarquini: → DTM/ITC
- Oscar Larrauri: → Japanese GT
Round 1 Mugello">Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello">Mugello
Qualifying| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Lap Time | Top Qualifying | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 6 |  Championship standings after Round 1;Drivers' Championship standings
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