Edgar Florindo survives to win on home ground

Local hero Edgar Florindo was one of the only two TCR Ibérico drivers who made it to the end of the first race at Vila Real.
Florindo, who made his comeback to the series in a Veloso Motorsport CUPRA, benefited from the mistakes of his competitors and crossed the finishing line in second position overall behind the winning Audi R8 GT, but first in TCR Ibérico.
At the start Robin Vaks took Francisco Mora by surprise and moved up to second behind the Audi GT; Mora who had been the fastest TCR driver in Qualifying, tried to resist but lost control of his CUPRA and crashed into the barriers at T1. Behind him, Daniel Teixeira collided with a Porsche GT and hit the wall as well. They both retired.
Moments later Gustavo Moura’s Audi RS 3 LMS that was fighting with Mattias Vahtel for the third position in TCR slowed down and retired with a broken driveshaft.
After a safety car period to remove the wrecked cars, Vaks was leading with a comfortable advantage over Florindo, but the guy from Vila Real didn’t give up and two laps before the end closed in on the Estonian youngster.
Florindo dived to the inside line, the two cars clashed and Vaks ended into the barrier, and so Florindo won the race with Vahtel a distant second.
The second race will start tomorrow at 9:15 local time.

Race 1
1. Edgár Florindo (Veloso Motorsport, CUPRA), 12 laps
2. Mattias Vahtel (ALM Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 54.635
3. Robin Vaks (ALM Racing, Honda Civic FK7), 2 laps

Championship points
1. Francisco Mora 50 pts; 2. Vaks 48; 3. Vahtel 42