Maxime Martin and Nicky Catsburg win Pool Furious semi finals

Romeo Ferraris’ Maxime Martin and Hyundai Motorsport N’s Nicky Catsburg claimed the victories in the Pool Furious semi finals on Sunday afternoon at Zolder, host of the fourth round of the 2022 FIA ETCR.

The Pool Furious semi finals featured one driver from each manufacturer, with Romeo Ferraris’ Martin, Cupra EKS’ Mattias Ekström and Hyundai Motorsport N’s Mikel Azcona on the line for the semi final 1.

Martin got ahead at the start, with Azcona overtaking Ekström for second place.

Ekström nudged Azcona at the chicane, putting his elbows out to overtake for second place as Azcona went wide off the track, but managing to stay in the race.

Martin won at the chequered flag, with Ekström in second place and Azcona using up his power-up in the last lap to close the gap to the Swede, crossing the line just two-tenths behind the Cupra.

The incident between Ekström and Azcona was up for investigation by the stewards.

“I know it’s touring car racing and there are this touches,” said Azcona. “But getting pushed from behind and sent out of the track isn’t fair and let’s see what the stewards have to say.”

“If you call that pushing, well, it’s a slight touch, I didn’t push him out,” said Ekström after the race. “It’s hard touring car racing, we are hard to each other, and we will see.”

For semi final 2 Romeo Ferraris’ Luca Filippi, Hyundai Motorsport N’s Catsburg and Cupra EKS’ Jordi Gené lined up.

Catsburg charged ahead to take the lead ahead of the Spaniard, with Filippi in third place.

Catsburg opened a gap during the first lap, with the drivers saving their power-up in the initial stages of the race.

Filippi closed up to Gené during the second lap, with the Cupra driver going defensive at the main straight, as Catsburg disappeared into the distance.

Catsburg won at the finishing line, with Gené defending from Filippi right up to the chequered flag to finish in second place.

“The start was quite good and it was all about power-up deployment, we made some changes to the car and it seems they worked well, thank you to the guys,” said Catsburg after the race.

Next for the FIA ETCR is the Pool Fast super final at 15:35 CEST.