Photo: ETCC Media

Andreas Pfister takes first win of the year at Paul Ricard

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Andreas Pfister took his first win of the 2015 European Touring Car Cup at Paul Ricard, finishing ahead of race one winner Dusan Borkovic, with Ronny Jost completing the podium.

Mladen Lalusic started on pole in the LEIN Racing SEAT León Cup Racer with Mat’o Homola alongside, but the Slovakian made a slow getaway from second which allowed Dejan Bulatovic ahead and into second place into the first corner with Homola dropping down to sixth position.

Andreas Pfister had started fifth but gained the spot from Homola at the start. The German passed Ronny Jost’s TopCar SEAT on lap two at Turn 1 and then profited on a chaotic lap four, when Bulatovic made a mistake at Turn 1 and slid wide out of second place, and then Pfister was able to take the lead from Lalusic before the end of the lap.

Dusan Borkovic then overtook Jost’s SEAT on the same lap with rear contact on Jost’s SEAT, with the stewards giving the Serbian a warning for the manoeuvre, but he was now up to second as Lalusic fell down the order.

Homola continued his recovery drive after his mistake at the start and passed Petr Fulín for fourth on lap eight, and repeated the same most on Jost three laps later for the final podium spot.

Gilles Bruckner had gained the lead in S1600 after a daring three-wide pass on lap four over Ulrike Krafft and Nicklas Mackshin, but it didn’t end well following an incident later in the race when Bruckner speared into Aytac Biter’s Borusan BMW 320 TC and spun it around. The incident was under investigation, but Brucker failed to finish the race when the bonnet on his Team LuxMotor Ford Fiesta flew up with two laps to go, handing the win to Mackschin.

There was final lap drama after Petr Fulín and Ronny Jost collied at Turn 3. Ost was able to continue and finished fourth, while Fulín finished eighth despite pulling into the pits on the final lap with damage to his SEAT León.

Davit Kajaia took his sixth consecutive win in the TC2T class in his Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC, finishing sixth overall, while Michal Matejovsky won in the TC2 class for Krenek Motorsport in his BMW 320si with ninth.

The next round of the 2015 ETCC takes place at Brno in the Czech Republic on September 6th.