Czech driver Petr Fulín took his first win in the FIA European Touring Car Cup at the Slovakiaring, whilst points leader Fernando Monje retired.
The two Hondas of Rikli Motorsport started from the front row with the reverse grid start, but made a sluggish getaway with the SEAT León Supercopa of Stian Paulsen taking the lead. Meanwhile Fernando Monje stalled on the grid in his SUNRED SEAT León TDI and dropped to the back of the pack, but was back up to 12th place on the next lap.
Petr Fulín was on the move in the Krenek Motorsport BMW 320si, from sixth on the grid he was up to second at the end of the first lap and then passed Paulsen’s SEAT down the inside of Turn 1 to take the lead at the start of the second lap.
Paulsen would later drop behind the León Supercopa of Andreas Pfister and Michal Matĕjovsky’s SEAT León TDI to finish fourth.
As Monje continued to progress through the field, he made contact with at Turn 10 with the PCR Sport SEAT León of Urs Sonderegger. The Swiss driver was out of the race, with Monje’s car overheating and retiring shortly after which brought out a long safety car period.
At the restart, Fulín held his ground at the front to take the first non-SEAT León TDI win of the 2012 ETCC, with Pfister in second and Matĕjovsky third.
Aleksander Tosic and Nikolay Karamyshev were embroiled in their own race in Super Production again, this time with Karamyshev coming out on top and 11th overall.
Kevin Krammes took his fourth consecutive victory in the Super 1600 class in the Ravenol Team GENA Ford Fiesta ahead of Paulo Necchi after Ulrike Krafft dropped out of second on the final lap after going off the circuit.
The next round of the ETC Cup is at the Salzburgring on May 20th.
