Petr Fulín wins Monza Race 1 as leading pair pick up a penalty

Krenek Motorsport’s Petr Fulín has won the first race of the 2017 European Touring Car Cup at Monza, despite the Rikli Motorsport Honda pair of Christjohannes Schreiber and Peter Rikli crossing the line in first and second, as the duo picked up a five-second penalty.

Rikli started from pole position in his Honda Civic TCR ahead of team-mate Schreiber, and the two held station while fourth-placed Zsolt Szabo stalled his Zengo SEAT León and fell to the back, narrowly avoided by the cars behind him.

Fulín was running in third, and tried to make a move at the inside of Schreiber’s Honda at the Rettifilo chicane at the start of the second lap, but the Swiss driver ran him wide at the exit and was able to pull a small gap to the Czech driver.

Plamen Kralev meanwhile moved up to fourth in his Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of Igor Stefanovski’s SEAT, but had no more pace than the Macedonian, and was fighting to hold him back for the next six laps.

The fight ended on lap seven, as both Stefanovsky and Zengo driver Norbert Nagy managed to pass Kralev down into Ascari, just before the Bulgarian was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for doing a practice start on the grid.

The stewards were then flagged as investigation a starting procedure violation by the two Hondas and Fabio Mota’s SEAT. Schreiber, now right on his team-mate’s tail, made a daring pass at the Rettifilo chicane and took the lead, but just seconds later a five-second penalty was confirmed for the Rikli pair and Mota’s LEIN Racing SEAT for starting the race out of position.

Schreiber and Rikli crossed the line first and second, but were demoted behind Fulín’s SEAT as a result of their penalty.

Race 2 follows with the top eight reversed, putting LEIN Racing’s Mladen Lalusic on pole position ahead of Andreas Pfister.