Fernando Monje wins again at the Salzburgring

Fernando Monje won for the second time today at the Salzburgring, going from eighth to first in two laps whilst Paulo Necchi takes his first win in S1600.

Urs Sonderegger took the lead into the first corner in his PCR Sport SEAT León Supercopa, taking the lead from Csapa Gáspár’s Alfa Romei, whilst Andreas Pfister’s Supercopa was spun around by Gáspár. Later on the lap, Sonderegger was passed around the outside into Turn 12 by Stian Paulsen.

By the end of the first lap, Monje was up to sixth place, and went on to pass Gáspár as well as Peter Rikli’s Honda Civic on lap two, and then overtook three cars, two on the straight, to take the lead on the third lap and pulled up to a 10 second gap on Stian Paulsen.

In Super 1600 the battle was much closer with Kevin Krammes leading early on in the Ravenol Team GENA Ford Fiesta but he was soon caught and passed by category rival Paolo Necchi, in the Ravenol Team SAN Fiesta.

Urs Sonderegger was spun out in Turn 1 whilst fighting to keep fourth place from Gáspár’s Alfa on lap seven, which saw the Swiss driver out of the race.

In Super Production, Nikolay Karamyshev won the class, though he made contact with rival Aleksander Tosic after Tosic, which saw the Serbian driver knocked off the track. He’d later close to finish just 2.4 second behind Karamyshev at the finish.

Necchi went on to take the win in Super 1600 ahead of Krammes, whilst Vadim Mescheryakov’s Chevrolet Aveo was hit by Ulrike Krafft’s Ford on the final lap, with Meshcheryakov retiring and Krafft going on to finish third.

The incidents between Gáspár and Pfister, and Meshcheryakov and Krafft are under investigation by the stewards.

Although Monje’s won four of the six rounds, he won’t be able to secure his title until the final round next month at Imola, with Peter Rikli and Petr Fulín still mathematically in with a chance of the title.

In Super 1600, it’s a two driver race between Ravenol Team GENA’s Kevin Krammes and Ravenol Team SAN’s Paolo Necchi with 18 points between them.

The final round of the 2012 ETCC is at Imola on June 24th.