Pepe Oriola takes his first win of the year at the Slovakiaring
Pepe Oriola has claimed his and Cupra’s first win in the World Touring Car Cup from third on the grid to capitalise on a slow start from Gabriele Tarquini in the BRC Hyundai, which has lost pace compared to yesterday.
Tarquini was jumped off the line by Aurélien Comte in the DG Sport Peugeot 308TCR, with Oriola moving up to second with Jean-Karl Vernay up to third in the WRT Audi RS 3 LMS, with the Italian down to fourth.
The Peugeot however didn’t have ultimate pace, and Comte was passed by both Oriola and Vernay on lap two and dropped to third, while on the other side of the top ten, the car making the most progress was Fabrizio Giovanardi in the Mulsanne Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR, with the 51-year-old straight up into the top ten from the start, and working his way up the order and was up to sixth at the end of lap two.
Tarquini overtook Comte’s Peugeot on lap three, while Oriola was building a lead up ahead in the Cupra over Vernay.
The race was suspended behind the safety car on lap five after Frédéric Vervisch’s Comtoyou Racing Audi stopped at Turn 10.
Oriola kept the lead as the race resumed, albeit receiving a warning from the stewards for not following the restart procedure.
Giovanardi passed the Münnich Honda of Yann Ehrlacher on lap eight and closed on Comte’s Peugeot, with the Frenchman having to fight hard to hold the position, with Comte eventually finishing fourth while Giovanardi scored his first points of the year and the first for Team Mulsanne with fifth.
The YMR Hyundais which had been disqualified due to boost issue of were making progress, but ultimately missed the top ten, with Yvan Muller finishing 12th and Thed Björk 13th at the end of the race. Norbert Michelisz meanwhile made limited progress and pitted one lap from the end.
Although Vervisch retired, the race was a strong one for Comtoyou Racing with their three drivers Denis Dupont, Aurélien Panis and Nathanael Berthon completing the top ten, with Dupont scoring his first points of the season.
The Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagens were still off the pace as in qualifying, struggling with the maximum compensation weight of 60kg, with Rob Huff finishing 19th and Mehdi Bennani 21st.
Yvan Muller still leads the championship, now just five points clear of Gabriele Tarquini, with Yann Ehrlacher third, 12 points back and four points clear of Jean-Karl Vernay’s Audi, while Pepe Oriola launches into sixth in the standings, passing Esteban Guerrieri, Rob Huff and Norbert Michelisz.
Next up is Qualifying 2 at 15:10 CEST, ahead of the reversed grid second race of the weekend at 19:00 CEST.
