Butti and Girolami share wins in TCR Italy opener at Imola
Marco Butti and Franco Girolami shared race wins at Imola in TCR Italy’s season opener. Butti drove his Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N to a lights-to-flag victory in Saturday’s Race 1, beating Girolami’s Audi RS 3 LMS and the reigning champion Niels Langeveld’s MM Motorsport brand-new Honda Civic Type R FL5.
In the second race, Girolami made a great start from P5 and after stealing the lead from Levente Losonczy pulled away and gave the newly-founded Aikoa Motorsport its maiden win, while Butti who had started eighth, recovered to finish second and ended the weekend on top of the standings, three points clear of his Argentine rival.
Race 1 – Butti had won the pole, beating Mattias Vahtel by two tenths, while Langeveld and Girolami filled the second row. At the start, Butti led from Vahtel, Langeveld, Matteo Poloni, Girolami and Felice Jelmini; the safety car was deployed at the end of lap 1, after Ruben Volt clashed with Sergio López and lost control of his Honda at the Rivazza 1, t-boning Junai Park’s Hyundai. López was given a 25-second penalty for the incident. Racing resumed in lap 5, with Girolami passing Poloni for P4, while Denis Babuin, Aurélien Comte and Rubén Fernández overtook Paolo Rocca moving into P8, 9 and 10 respectively. Two laps later, Girolami advanced to third ahead of Langeveld.
Butti increased his leading gap, while Vahtel was passed by Girolami and Langeveld in lap 9, and then found himself chased by Jelmini and Poloni. One lap later, Vahtel went straight at the Variante Alta and dropped to 14th. Butti began the last lap with Girolami on his rear bumper, but retained a half-a-second margin under the flag, while Langeveld completed the podium.
Race 2 – Rocca and Losonczy sat on the front row of the top-eight reversed grid; Losonczy made a better start and led from Girolami, Rocca and Langeveld who immediately began to drop with a power steering issue, while the safety car was called into action to recover Victor Fernández’s Audi that had crashed at the Tamburello. At the restart, on lap 3, Girolami stole the lead from Losonczy, while Butti passed Jelmini for P5. The safety car returned on the track following an incident at the Tosa. The green flag was waved again at the end of lap 5, with Langeveld retiring into the pits and Girolami pulling away from Losonczy; behind them Rocca defended the third place from Poloni, Butti, Jelmini and Rubén Fernández. Poloni served a stop-and-go for a grid infringement and rejoned at the back.
In lap 10, Jelmini and Fernández passed Rocca and advanced to third and fourth; the Spaniard then overtook Jelmini who recovered the position in the following lap. In lap 11, Butti overtook Losonczy for second, while Comte passed Vahtel for P7 and closed on Rocca. Up front, Girolami won by a 1.5 second margin over Butti, while Losonczy held on to the third place ahead of Jelmini and Fernández.
The DSG cars competed in separate races, with Carlotta Fedeli (RC Motorsport) and Vedat Ali Dalokay (Bitci Racing Team) scoring a win apiece in their Audi cars.
The championship will resume at Misano on May 5/7.
Imola – Race 1
1. Marco Butti (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N), 15 laps
2. Franco Girolami (Aikoa Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 0.473
3. Niels Langeveld (MM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 3.678
Imola – Race 2
1. Franco Girolami (Aikoa Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS II), 15 laps
2. Marco Butti (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N), 1.481
3. Levente Losonczy (Aggressive Team Italia, Hyundai Elantra N), 4.209
Championship points
1. M. Butti, 90 pts; 2. F. Girolami, 87; 3. F. Jelmini 65
Picture: ACI Sport
