Nicolas Taylor takes lights-to-flag victory at Vallelunga
Audi driver Nicolas Taylor controlled the first race at Vallelunga, host of the fifth round of the 2024 TCR Italy season, to take his second victory of the year.
Taylor made the most of his pole position to take the lead at the rolling start, with Ruben Volt (Honda) taking second place as Paolo Rocca (Honda) lost several positions.
Nicola Baldan (Audi) turned up the heat on Volt on the second lap, attempting to overtake the Estonian driver as Junesung Park (Hyundai) of Solite Indigo Racing also was close behind.
The positions remained stable and Taylor increased the gap over the pursuing group as Baldan continued attacking Volt, overtaking for second place on lap five, with Junesung Park following suit for third.
Further behind, Matteo Poloni held sixth place, as Levente Losonczy pressured Alex Ley for seventh place. The Hungarian came side-by-side with the Brit on lap six, allowing Junui Park (Hyundai) to put pressure on Losonczy.
The battle between the two continued and Levente overtook Ley for seventh place on lap seven with some contact between the two.
Damiano Reduzzi (Hyundai) closed the gap and attacked Junui Park, overtaking for ninth place on lap nine. The same lap saw Poloni going side-by-side on the main straight with Losonczy, with the Italian receiving a warning for the incident as the two made contact. The Hungarian driver managed to overtake for sixth place a few corners later.
The safety car was called into action on lap 14 as Filippo Barberi (Audi) spun off the track and was stranded in the gravel trap.
The track was green again with two laps to go, with Taylor maintaining the lead ahead of Baldan.
Levente attacked Rocca, as Ley suffered a tyre issue, losing several positions. Rocca had to retire with smoke coming out from his engine, stopping on the side of the track.
Taylor claimed the victory at the chequered flag, with Baldan and Junesung Park completing the podium.
Volt was fourth ahead of his team-mate Losonczy, with Cosimo Barberini (Cupra) in sixth place.
Luigi Fazzino (Audi) finished seventh, with Hyundai drivers Gabriele Covini and Michele Imberti right behind. Salvatore Tavano took the second Cupra from Scuderia del Girasole to tenth place.
“Today everything has been perfect; we made the pole position, won the race and lead from start to finish,” said Taylor after the race. “The only difficult moment was the restart after the safety car, but we did ok.”
Baldan continues leading the championship after Race 1 with 289 points, 15 over Volt and 23 ahead of Taylor.
The TCR Italy field returns to action on Sunday afternoon for Race 2 at 13:00 CEST.
