The pair of Francisco Carvalho and Nuno Batista scored a double victory in the opening round of Portugal’s National Speed Championship (CNV) yesterday at Braga’s Circuito Vasco Sameiro.
With the series adopting TCR as its major class, Carvalho and Batista won a race apiece, sharing a SEAT León run by Veloso Motorsport.
In the first race Carvalho took the best start and jumped into the lead ahead of pole sitter Manuel Gião (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf Gti), Francisco Mora (Veloso Motorsport Seat León) and João Baptista (SEAT León). José Rodrigues had to pit for cleaning the front of his Honda Civic after going off.
The fight for second saw Mora overtaking Gião on lap 5, however in the 13th and last-but-one lap, Mora had to hand back the position as his car suffered from fuel-feeding problems.
Carvalho benefited from the duel behind him and crossed the line with a 10-second advantage ahead of Gião, Mora and Baptista.
After a short break, the drivers took the start for the second race. Batista, who had replaced Carvalho in the winning car, imitated his teammate and took the lead. Mora was forced to retire because of a steering problem after a contact with Gustavo Moura’s SEAT León.
Batista was leading, followed by Moura (who had replaced João Baptista in the SEAT) and Francisco Abreu (who was sharing the Novadriver Golf with Gião).
Once again the fight for the second place was thrilling; Abreu overtook Moura on lap 7 and eventually Moura lost third place to the SEAT León of José Cabral, while Batista won the race with a gap of tree seconds.
Races 3 and 4 will take place tomorrow.
