Tavano takes his second win in the Imola weekend
Salvatore Tavano took the most out of the TCR Italy’s third event of the season at Imola. By claiming his second victory of the weekend, the reigning champion retook the lead in the standings, ten points ahead of his own teammate Matteo Greco; the previous leader Marco Pellegrini slipped down to third, nine points behind, while Enrico Bettera lies in fourth position two further point adrift.
Pole sitter Davide Nardilli led the field at the start, but during the first lap he was passed by Tavano and one lap later he lost the second place to Bettera.
Behind the leading duo there were some tough battles. Pellegrini was punted off by Igor Stefanovski and rejoined at the back of the field, while Nardilli tried to defend the third place from Jacopo Guidetti. Their cars made contact a couple of times until Guidetti pushed Nardilli wide at the Rivazza 1 bend and went through. A few laps later, Guidetti was given a drive-through and dropped down the order.
Tavano has built a four-second lead ahead of Bettera who had a comfortable margin over Stefanovski and Greco who were fighting for the third place; it was a virtual fight tough, as the Macedonian was given a drive-through for the incident with Pellegrini.
Further behind, Nardilli defended his fifth position from the assaults of Pellegrini. On lap 11 a contact between Damiano Reduzzi and Felix Wimmer resulted in the Austrian’s CUPRA crashing after the Acque Minerali bend. The safety car was deployed and so the race ended with Tavano victorious ahead of Bettera, Greco, Nardilli and Pellegrini.
Stefanovski’s drive-through was turned into a 25-second penalty that dropped him to the 12th place.
TCR Italy will return into action at Mugello on July 19/21.
Race 2
1. Salvatore Tavano (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA), 12 laps
2. Enrico Bettera (Pit Lane Competizioni, Audi RS 3 LMS), 0.774
3. Matteo Greco (Scuderia del Girasole, CUPRA), 3.909
4. Davide Nardilli (MM Motorsport, Honda Civic FK2), 4.408
5. Marco Pellegrini (Target Competition, Hyundai i30 N TCR), 7.493
Championship points
1. Tavano 70 pts; 2. Greco 62; 3. Pellegrini 61
