Harald Schlegelmilch wins the first race after his comeback, a maiden victory for Vladimir Netusil in the FORMULA class and Stephan Glaser takes the SUPER LIGHTS title.

At the rolling start, all eyes were on pole setter Antonio Pizzonia (HS Engineering) in the World Series V8 4.5, as the Brazilian initially failed to get going. The cars directly behind were only just able to find a way past the former Formula 1 driver’s slow car. The best start belonged to Marco Ghiotto (ITA, Scuderia Palladio), who moved to the front of the field from third on the grid. But it was Harald Schlegelmilch who took the lead a short time later in the much faster World Series V8 4.5 and set the pace in the early stages.

While Pizzonia was once again making his way to the front after the botched start, a duel between the two championship leaders Marco Ghiotto and Simone Colombo (ITA, MM International) developed behind him. In Turn 2 the two then had a dramatic collision in, which ultimately led to Colombo retiring and a drive-through penalty for Ghiotto. Pizzonia used the following safety car period to catch up with team-mate Schlegelmilch again. Despite the Brazilian’s fastest race lap (1:20.837), the Latvian was unbeatable on his race debut in the BOSS GP Racing Series. After 22 minutes of racing, Schlegelmilch won the OPEN category ahead of Pizzonia.

Behind them, there was a duel between the two youngest drivers on the grid. The two 18-year-old MM International drivers Max Cuccarese (ITA) and Juju Noda (JPN) were together for almost the entire race before things came to a head on the very last lap. Juju tried to get alongside Cuccarese one last time, but the Japanese driver failed in her attempt and made contact with Cuccarese’s Dallara GP2. Both spun out and ended their race in the battle for the FORMULA win shortly before the end. Suddenly it was Paul O’Connell (IRE) in the World Series 3.5 car who was in the lead. He had been engaged in a tough duel with Vladimir Netusil (CZE, MM International), who suddenly smelled a chance of victory on the final lap and managed to overtake O’Connell in a photo finish on the home straight: only fractions of a second separated the two at the chequered flag.

Max Cuccarese was not celebrating third place after the collision, while Juju Noda finished fourth. Marco Ghiotto scored further points in fifth place and can secure the title tomorrow. Jean-Christophe Peyre (FRA) was delighted to have won the team duel against Nicolas Matile (MCO) in the ZIGZAG-Auto GP.

Stephan Glaser (SUI, Jo Zeller Racing) claimed victory in the SUPER LIGHTS. The BOSS GP rookie deservedly secured the title with his eighth win of the season. Walter Colacino (ITA) took a great second place in this category, while Andreas Hasler (AUT, Hasler Motorsport) in third place was happy to have fixed the technical problems on the car from the previous day and to be able to attack again on Sunday.

Race 2 starts on Sunday at 12:25 pm and again covers a distance of 22 minutes.

Pictures: Angelo Poletto

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