Jordi Gené and Pepe Oriola pleased Craft-Bamboo’s Russian sponsor, Lukoil, and its many guests by taking an undisputed 1-2 in Race 1 at Sochi Autodrom.
The two red-and-white SEAT cars dominated from start to finish, with the two Spanish team-mates running closely but not engaging in serious battle.
The SEAT domination was completed by Andrea Belicchi (Target Competition) taking third after a relatively solitary race. In the opening laps, the Italian had to keep at bay the attacks of Mikhail Grachev, who later lost ground progressively and had to concede fourth to Stefano Comini and fifth to Sergey Afanasyev, eventually the first among the Russian drivers.
The Honda Civic cars were not in a position to show great pace, with Gianni Morbidelli and Kevin Gleason unable to do better than 7th and 8th, respectively.
Key moments
Grid – Few drops of rain fall on the grid, but race kicks off on an almost completely dry track
Start – Good start for Gené who precedes Oriola, Belicchi, Grachev, Comini and Engström who did not take a good start
Lap 1 – Afanasyev passes Morbidelli for 7th after running wide in a corner
Lap 3 – Grachev tries an attack on Belicchi at the braking; Afanasyev and Engström fight for 6th, with some rubbing, as a result the Swede gets passed by Nykjær and Morbidelli
Lap 4 – Belicchi (3rd) takes some breathing space ahead of Grachev whi is chased by Comini
Lap 6 – Gené, Oriola and Grachev receive a warning for trespassing the track limits; Morbidelli tries to attack Nykjær
Lap 7 – Grachev is losing ground, maybe because of his tyres, and gets passed by Comini and Afanasyev, dropping to 6th
Lap 9 – Engström passes Nykjær after going too wide and gives back 8th position shortly after
Lap 10 – Rakhmatullin stops in the pits with an oil pressure warning, while Afanasyev and Grachev make contact
Lap 11 – In the last lap Gené makes a small mistake but keeps the advantage while Engström gets sideways on a slippery kerb hitting Nykjaer and damaging the radiator
