Nicola Baldan (Pit Lane Competizioni SEAT León) won Mugello’s Race 2 and jumped ahead of Eric Scalvini (MM Racing Honda Civic) in the championship classification with a margin of four points.
Scalvini had been lucky enough to maintain the leadership after the first race, when he had salvaged a second position despite blowing the engine on the last lap, but in the second race he couldn’t achieve anything better than a ninth.
After losing a couple of victories in the previous events because of tyre failures, Kevin Giacon had his best weekend so far in the season, as he was finally able to grab his maiden win at the wheel of his Opel Astra in Race 1 and then finished second in Race 2.
Race 1 – Scalvini and Giacon started better than pole sitter Baldan who nearly stalled and dropped to fifth; Finlay Crocker’s Honda spun off and rejoined at the back. During the opening lap, Giacon benefited from a mistake of Scalvini and took the lead.
Behind the Giacon-Scalvini duo, Massimiliano Mugelli, Plamen Kralev and Baldan were in a close fight for third. After resisting the assaults from Baldan, Kralev overtook Mugelli on lap 7 and began to close the gap from the leading duo.
In the final part of the race, Giacon was closely chased by Scalvini and Kralev, then on the last lap Scalvini’s engine blew and spilled oil on the track, which forced the race director to wave the red flag.
Consequently, the final classification was that of the previous lap, meaning that Scalvini maintained his second position behind Giacon and ahead of Kralev. Mugelli kept Baldan at bay for P4.
Race 2 – The MM Racing crew had succeeded in changing Scalvini’s engine and he made the best start and took the lead from Baldan and Mugelli, but the safety car was deployed on lap 1 to recover a couple of cars that had spun off.
The race resumed on lap 3 and Baldan overtook Scalvini for the lead; behind them Giacon moved up to third ahead of Kralev and Mugelli. From the 5th lap, Scalvini’s pace faded and he began to lose positions until he eventually dropped to eighth.
Giacon and Kralev advanced to second and third, but Baldan had already built a safe margin and went to claim his fourth win of the season. After the race Kralev was demoted to ninth by a penalty for overtaking during the safety car period and Mugelli inherited third.
The TCR Italy will resume on September 9 and 10 at Imola.
