Commanding victory in Slovakia Race 1 for Nathanaël Berthon
Frenchman Nathanaël Berthon has taken a comfortable win in the first race of the weekend at the Slovakiaring for Comtoyou Racing, coming home over three seconds clear of Gabriele Tarquini after breaking the competition’s backs early on.
The race was held in semi-wet conditions after overnight rain, with the majority of the field opting for slicks at the front and wets at the rear.
Luca Engstler was the only opening lap casualty as his Hyundai i30 N TCR was involved in contact, the German unable to recover after suffering damage and had to pit.
Behind Berthon who retained the lead with relative ease, an intense battle was heating up between Nicky Catsburg, Jean-Karl Vernay, Nestor Girolami, Gilles Magnus and Esteban Guerrieri. They were all split by just over a second but it was Catsburg who lost out early, suffering rear grip issues in his Hyundai which let the Honda Civic Type-R TCR of Girolami through.
Catsburg’s pain went from bad to worse as he dropped to seventh in the order only a lap after running up in fourth, evidently struggling for grip as out front Gabriele Tarquini started to chip away at Berthon’s lead.
Meanwhile radio chatter between the Honda drivers of Girolami and Guerrieri got heated with the two banging doors despite Girolami being told he wouldn’t have to defend his spot, eventually conceding fourth to Guerrieri on the final lap which hurt his team-mate’s championship chances.
Up front from the two Argentinians, Berthon comfortably came home in the lead some three seconds before Tarquini as Vernay made it on to the final step of the podium, just half a second in front of Guerrieri in fourth.
Championship leader Yann Ehrlacher finished ninth from 14th on the grid while Lynk & Co colleague Thed Björk finished 19th after pitting to change from full wets to full slicks on the greasy circuit.
The second race starts at 12:45 CEST.
