Fernando Monje wins race one in Austria

Fernando Monje overcame his ten place grid penalty to go from 11th to first and take his third win of the 2012 FIA European Touring Car Cup season.

SUNRED Engineering team-mate Igor Skuz started from pole and held the spot into the first corner, whilst Andreas Pfister was edging Single Make Trophy class rival Stian Paulsen off the track in order to hold on to his second place into the first corner.

Christian Fischer and Aytac Biter made contact at the first corner, with Fischer being spun around. The two would resume battle later in the race with Fischer recovering to eighth place before Biter made contact whilst passing him back on lap 11, which knocked the door loose on the Honda Accord. Fischer would later pit with further damage after clouting the tyre stacks at Turn 1.

There was a safety car early in the race to allow the recovery of Steffan Grossmann’s Ford Fiesta which had crashed out at Turn 7.

At the restart, Fernando Monje was rapidly moving up the order from ninth, taking the lead from Igor Skuz on lap 11, with Skuz later dropping down to ninth place.

Andreas Pfister won in the single make trophy class with second ahead of Stian Paulsen, with Petr Fulín the top BMW driver in fourth.

Nikolay Karamyshev won in the Super Production class just 0.338 ahead of rival Aleksander Tosic, whilst Kevin Krammes secured his fifth win from five starts in Super 1600 for Ravenol Team GENA, though the German had to fight off a strong charge from Argentinean driver Wilson Borgnino in his Maurer Motorsport Chevrolet Aveo.

Race two is at 17:05 CET.