Bettera wins Imola Race 1, as a penalty hits Ferrara

After setting pole position in this morning’s Qualifying, Enrico Bettera won TCR Italy’s first race at Imola in his Pit Lane Competizioni Audi RS3 LMS.
For the whole race Bettera was chasing Luigi Ferrara who had taken the lead at the start from second on the grid in the V-Action Racing Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Bettera was even able to clock the race’s fastest lap, but could not overtake Ferrara. However, the latter received a 25-second penalty for not respecting the safety car procedure and dropped out of the points.
Bettera inherited the victory – his maiden one in TCR Italy – while Massimiliano Mugelli (MM Motorsport Honda Civic FK7) and Salvatore Tavano (SEAT Motorsport Italia Cupra) completed the podium. Luca Rangoni claimed a brilliant fourth position in his maiden appearance at the wheel of the Top Run-built Subaru WRX STI.
Nicola Baldan’s and Eric Scalvini’s Hyundai cars were both missing after the incident in this morning Qualifying; Baldan broke a collarbone in the impact and Scalvini was excluded for causing the collision.
At the start Ferrara sprinted ahead of Bettera, while Mugelli and Tavano quickly moved up to third and fourth. The race was disrupted twice by the safety car, once when the Honda Civic cars of Marco Pellegrini and Josè Rodrigues went off in two different corners and a second time when Federico Paolino’s Hyundai crashed at the Tosa.
At the end of the first neutralization, Ferrara dropped too far away behind the safety car, which earned him the penalty.
Tavano has further increased his leading margin in the standings to 20.5 points over Ferrara, who is now only 3.5 points ahead of Tavano’s teammate Matteo Greco, who finished sixth and won the DSG Trophy.
Race 2 will start at 10:40 CET tomorrow; live streaming at and www.tcr-series.tv.