WCTR

Pepe Oriola wins first race in Slovakiaring

Pepe Oriola won the first race of the WTCR that takes place this weekend in Slovakia. The Spanish rider started from third place on the grid but both he and Aurélien Comte in the Peugeot 308TCR of DG Sport, DG Sport took advantage of a poor first lap of Gabriele Tarquini in the BRC Hyundai. Oriola climbed to second, with Jean-Karl Vernay in third, WRT's Audi RS 3 LMS, with Tarquini falling to fourth.However, Comte and his Peugeot were unable to sustain Oriola and Vernay, who passed him on lap two. Tarquini also passed Comte's Peugeot on the third lap, while Oriola took advantage to build a small lead ahead of the race against Vernay. On the fifth lap the race was suspended, with safety car entry after the Audi of Frédéric Vervisch of Comtoyou Racing stopped on Turn 10.Although he did not strictly follow the race restart procedures, and was therefore admonished by the Stewards, Oriola maintained the lead until the end, finishing with a progress of 1,734 seconds against Jean-Karl Vernay in an Audi. A little further behind and to close the podium was placed Gabriele Tarquini (Hyundai), who recovered what can of a bad start of race. Aurélien Comte, who came to the front of the race, was fourth in front of Fabrizio Giovanardi (Alfa Romeo), who in the initial phase of the race made a great recovery from 10th to sixth.
Giovanardi passed Yann Ehrlacher's Münnich Honda on the eighth lap and finished the race to press hard on Comte's Peugeot, with the Frenchman having to fight hard to maintain his position.YMR Hyundai, winners in Vila Real, who were excluded from qualifying due to over-pressure in the turbo, regained positions but finished out of the top 10 with Yvan Muller finishing 12th and Thed Björk 13th. Norbert Michelisz made little progress and gave up a lap of the race. Good race for Comtoyou, Racing, with the three drivers, Denis Dupont, Aurélien Panis and Nathanael Berthon in the top ten.
After the Vila Real crash, Sébastien Loeb's Volkswagen fought against the maximum 60kg compensation weight in qualifying, with Rob Huff finishing only 19th and Mehdi Bennani 21st. Still, Yvan Muller remains at the top of the championship, but now only five points clear of Gabriele Tarquini, with Yann Ehrlacher in third, 12 points behind.




Fábio Mendes, de Portugal