Tomas Kostka leads spectacular Audi 1-2-3 at Vallelunga
Tomas Kostka led an Audi Sport Italia 1-2-3 in the second EuroV8 race at Vallelunga. The Czech came home ahead of team-mates Davide Stancheris and Ermanno Dionisio. The result came after one of the most dramatic races in the history of the championship.
Reverse-grid pole sitter Leonardo Baccarelli was out even before the warm-up lap, as his Mercedes C63 AMG had a mechanical issue on the grid. Dionisio inherited pole, but it was Team BMW Dinamic’s Maurizio Copetti who took the lead after a great getaway from the rolling start.
Mercedes driver Diego Romanini, who was second at the first corner, stopped just at the exit of Cimini, which promoted Dionisio to second. Stancheris was in third ahead of Nicola Baldan’s C63 AMG Coupè, Francesco Sini’s Chevrolet Camaro and Kostka’s Audi. Dionisio was quick to take the lead back during the first lap and started trying to build a gap.
Kostka quickly overtook Race 1 winner Sini and started chasing Baldan for fifth while Stancheris pulled a beautiful “sell him a dummy and pass” on Copetti at Tornantino. During the next lap Copetti also lost out on Baldan and Kostka.
A small mistake at the last corner from Dionisio meant Stancheris took the lead as their Czech team-mate overtook Baldan for third. The Mercedes C63 AMG Coupè later stopped on track with smoke coming out of the bonnet.
The most entertaining part of the race was towards the end, when Kostka pushed hard to close the gap from his team-mates as Stancheris started showing signs of his tyres wearing off with a minor off at the last corner.
During the last two laps the three Audi RS5s had a spectacular fight, the peak of it being Stancheris, Kostka and Dionisio getting to Semaforo in that order, the former sliding into his Czech team-mate and Dionisio passing both of them on the occasion. Kostka was finally able to take a struggling Stancheris and win the race by taking the lead at the last lap, followed by Stancheris who had a hard time keeping Dionisio at bay.
The spectacular race finished with an Audi 1-2-3 ahead of Niccolò Mercatali’s BMW M3 E92 and Francesco Ascani’s older E90 version of the Bavarian car. Sini, who won Race 1 earlier today, had a big off at the last corner and was able to rejoin, but he lost too much time to do better than sixth in his Chevrolet Camaro. Domiziano Giacon’s BMW M3 E92 came home seventh ahead of Baldan, who didn’t see the flag but was still classified in eighth in his C63 AMG Coupè.
Despite a tough second race, Sini leaves Vallelunga in the lead of the championship with 69 points ahead of Kostka, six points behind. Stancheris is in third, 15 points shy of the leader, with Cheever staying on 53 points in fourth and Baldan up to fifth with 50 points.
The series will enjoy a short two-week break before heading to Mugello, Tuscany, for the third round of the season, which is also the last of the Italian leg of the championship.
