Markus Pommer took his second victory of the season in the opening race of the Auto GP World Series event at Monza. The German converted his pole position into the win and won the race by just over a second from Hungarian Tamas Pal Kiss, while female ace Michela Cerruti completed the podium.
It was a relatively straightforward and comfortable win for Pommer, who initially had to withstand the pressure from the Eurotech Engineering machine of Kevin Giovesi, but once the Italian was delayed in his pit stop, it was plain sailing for the Super Nova International driver to go on to claim the win.
Zele Racing’s Pal Kiss had a strong race to close on Pommer over the final laps but ultimately came up short, while Italian female racer Cerruti had her best race of the season to date and took her maiden podium finish in front of her home fans. The Super Nova driver was the first of six Italians that took finishing spots three through to eight.
Fourth was Virtuosi UK’s Andrea Roda, with Michele La Rosa fifth for MLR71 by Euronova. Francesco Dracone was sixth in the third Super Nova entry, ahead of his former team-mate at Ibiza Racing, Giuseppe Cipriani.
Giovesi ended up finishing eighth after the pit stop that cost him a shot at the win that was caused by a sticky left rear wheel that refused to come off. Eurotech were later fined 500€ for having too many crewmembers working on the car during the stop.
Venezuelan Samin Gomez claimed points on her debut in ninth for Zele Racing, while the final point went to Japanese driver Yoshitaka Kuroda for Euronova Racing after he was forced to make a second pit stop due to a puncture.
Another debutant Shinya Michimi was on course for a good result for Euronova, overtaking Roda for fourth moments before his car cut out on him at Lesmo 1. Christof von Grunigen’s debut for Zele Racing however was a nightmare. Starting on the front row, he almost stalled on the line and fell to last position, and then collided with Loris Spinelli’s Eurotech machine on lap two that saw both drivers retire.
With championship leader Kimiya Sato absent from this weekends races, his lead has been cut to 21 points, with Sato leading Pal Kiss 114 points to 93, while Pommer is one point further back in third.
Monza Race 1 Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Markus Pommer | GER | Super Nova International | 28m20.934s |
2 | Tamas Pal Kiss | HUN | Zele Racing | +1.027s |
3 | Michela Cerruti | ITA | Super Nova International | +15.100s |
4 | Andrea Roda | ITA | Virtuosi UK | +15.747s |
5 | Michele La Rosa | ITA | MLR71 by Euronova | +29.066s |
6 | Francesco Dracone | ITA | Super Nova International | +37.534s |
7 | Giuseppe Cipriani | ITA | Ibiza Racing Team | +40.124s |
8 | Kevin Giovesi | ITA | Eurotech Engineering | +40.734s |
9 | Samin Gomez | VEN | Zele Racing | +47.245s |
10 | Yoshitaka Kuroda | JAP | Euronova Racing | +56.231s |
RET | Shinya Michimi | JAP | Euronova Racing | 15 Laps |
RET | Loris Spinelli | ITA | Eurotech Engineering | 1 Lap |
RET | Christof von Grunigen | SWI | Zele Racing | 1 Lap |