Seinen ersten Sieg im FIA European Touring Car Cup fuhr Igor "Idze" Stefanovski ein. Er gewann vor dem Schweizer Kris Richard und dem Finnen Aku Pellinen im italienischen Imola.
Somit ist Stefanovski der erste Makedonier der ein FIA Rennen gewonnen hat.
Mehr zum Rennverlauf in englisch:
Igor Stefanovski wins in Imola as Kris Richard now leads the championship
Igor Stefanovski took his maiden FIA European Touring Car Cup win at Imola, Italy. The ASK Lein Racing driver came home ahead of Rikli Motorsport’s Kris Richard and Aku Pellinen, as Petr Fulín was fourth in his Krenek Motorsport SEAT.
At the start Pellinen immediately lost the lead from pole position, as Richard and Stefanovski had a better getaway on the rolling start. The Honda driver led the way ahead of the Macedonian, with Pellinen third ahead of Fulín. There was some chaos at the start as Peter Rikli was hit by ADAC Team Hessen-Thuringen’s Andreas Pfister, who later received a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Stefanovski looked quite strong straight away and startet putting pressure on Richard. The SEAT drive made his move on the third lap at Piratella but, despite jumping up to the lead, his rival was able to claim his position back.
That didn’t last long through, as Richard left the door open at Rivazza and Stefanovski exploited the gap to jump up into the lead. The Macedonian showed he had superior pace and opened up a gap, as Pellinen looked like he had more pace than Richard but stayed in third ahead of Fulín, who was actually never able to attack the Finn.
Stefanovski won the race, becoming the first Macedonian to win an FIA race. The SEAT driver came home ahead of Richard, Pellinen and Fulín. Christjohannes Schreiber was fifth in the second Krenek Motorsport SEAT, ahead of Norbert Nagy, Honda’s Claudio Truffer and Fabio Mota. Bostjan Abvelj was ninth in his Lema Racing SEAT, with Peter Rikli completing the top ten after his spin at the start.
Fabio Mota and Claudio Truffer will share the front row in the reversed-grid title showdown. Kris Richard is now two points ahead of Fulín in the championship.
