Pellegrini keeps Tavano at bay in Mugello’s Race 1

Marco Pellegrini benefited from his competitors’ trouble and claimed an authoritative victory in TCR Italy’s Race 1 at Mugello. The Target Competition driver managed to keep Salvatore Tavano behind and so closed the gap from him in the standings to four points.
Pellegrini had been third fastest in Qualifying, but found himself first on the starting grid following the grid penalty inflicted to Klim Gavrilov, who had set the fastest lap, and the fact that Enrico Bettera started from the pit lane.
At the start, Pellegrini kept Tavano at bay and, despite making a mistake during the first lap, he retained the lead from Tavano, Matteo Greco and Jacopo Guidetti who had passed Eric Scalvini for fourth. During lap 2, Gavrilov pitted and rejoined at the back.
The leading quartet pulled away, while there was a close fight for fifth between Giovanni Altoè, Scalvini and Davide Nardilli. The latter overtook Scalvini on lap 6, but all of a sudden had to stop with a front-right puncture.
In the final part of the race, Altoè dropped, Felix Wimmer overtook Scalvini for fifth and Bettera recovered to finish in seventh position.
Race 2 will start Sunday at 13:40 local time (CET), with the CUPRA cars of Scalvini and Greco filling the front row; live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.

Race 1
1. Marco Pellegrini (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N TCR), 14 laps
2. Salvatore Tavano (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA), 3.332
3. Matteo Greco (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA), 5.094
4. Jacopo Guidetti (BF Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14.027
5. Felix Wimmer (Wimmer Werk Motorsport, CUPRA), 22.165

Championship points
1. Tavano 85 pts; 2. Pellegrini 81; 3. Greco 74