Photo: ETCC Media

Petr Fulín wins disrupted first race at Slovakia

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Petr Fulín dominated the first race at the Slovakiaring, taking victory ahead of Slovakian driver Mat’o Homola in a race which saw an extended safety car period after a first corner melée.

Fulín led into the first corner, but a slide for Mat’o Homola’s BMW into the first corner triggered a chain reaction, with a number of the field behind crashing into each other behind. Jordi Oriola emerged with cosmetic damage to the front of his SEAT Supercopa in third, but the S2000 drivers Peter Rikli, Aytac Biter and Dusan Borkovic were out of the race with damage and trapped in the gravel trap, as were the three Supercopas of Aurélien Comte, Anton Ladygin and Ferenc Ficza.

Homola’s slide had dropped him down to fourth, whilst Michal Matejovsky had already managed to work his way up to eighth before the safety car came out.

At the restart on lap five, Homola was able to pass Oriola’s SEAT down the end of the straight, whilst Proteam’s Diego Romanini was able to get ahead of Nicolas Hamilton’s Baporo SEAT for ninth. Hamilton subsequently spun at Turn 6 and was collected by Mikhail Maleev’s Russian Bears SEAT and both were out in the gravel, with yellow flags at that corner for the remainder of the race.

Matejovsky in the second of Krenek Motorsport’s BMWs continued to surge forward, passing Nikolay Karamyshev’s SEAT for fifth on lap six, and finally passed Jordi Oriola’s Tuenti Racing SEAT for fourth around the outside of Turn 1 at the start of lap nine.

At the same corner on the same lap, Mat’o Homola was able to pass Andreas Pfister’s SEAT Supercopa for second place and hold on to the position until the finish, crossing the line just under seven seconds behind race winner Petr Fulín.

In the Super 1600 class, Kevin Krammes took another victory in the Ravenol Team GENA Ford Fiesta, finishing eight seconds clear of Romeo Luciano’s Ravenol Team SAN Ford.

In the Ladies’ Trophy, Andrina Gugger took the victory in the remaining Rikli Motorsport Honda, and will start from pole for the reversed grid race two, which follows immediately after race one.