Touring Car legend Gabriele Tarquini announces his retirement

Gabriele Tarquini, arguably one of the most successful and respected Touring Car drivers of all time, has today announced his retirement from motorsport.
The Italian driver will bring to an end his incomparable career after the two final events of the WTCR, at Adria this week and at Sochi on the last weekend of November.
Tarquini’s racing career began at the age of 10, when he debuted in the 125cc regional karting championship. After being crowned Italian champion three times, European champion once and having won the Class C World Championship in 1984, he switched from karting to car racing. He went quickly through F3 and F3000 before landing in F1 where he took part in 78 events over seven seasons.
His outstanding Touring Car career began in the 1987 World Championship with an Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo and continued until today, totalling nearly 700 races at the wheel of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Honda, SEAT, LADA and Hyundai cars.
The peaks of this amazing adventure were the titles in the 1994 British Touring Car Championship and the 2003 FIA European Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo and those in the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT and in the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup for Hyundai. 
Tarquini became World Champion at the age of 47, World Cup winner at the age of 56 and claimed his most recent victory this year at Aragón in WTCR at the age of 59, setting a series of records as the oldest champion and race winner in FIA history.

Picture: WTCR