Photo: Superstars

Berton takes maiden Superstars win as Liuzzi crashes out

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Giovanni Berton took a surprise win in an extra eventful second heat of the Superstars Series at Brno. The Italian claimed his maiden win in the series ahead of Gianni Morbidelli’s Audi RS5 and Thomas Biagi’s BMW M3 E92.

At the start Diabolik took the lead in his Jaguar ahead of Berton and Francesco Sini’s Camaro. The BMW was quick to get rid of the Jaguar and started to pull away as Diabolik began defending second place, giving Berton the chance to open a gap.

At the end of the first lap Berton was in the lead ahead of Diabolik, Sini, Liuzzi, Ferrara, Morbidelli, Bacci and Giovanardi, who had another slow start. During the second lap Diabolik slipped down the order and eventually ended up making contact with Mugelli’s BMW. The spinning Bavarian car collected Giovanardi’s Porsche Panamera S just on its front left suspension, putting the race of all three to an end.

The incident caused the deployement of the Safety Car, which completely erased the gap Berton had been able to open. At the restart the BMW driver was however able to retain the lead as Sini and Vitantonio Liuzzi battled it out. The two made contact and were both out of the race, with Gianni Morbidelli and his Audi inheriting second place ahead of Biagi’s Mercedes.

As the duo battled it out Berton was able to open a gap again, and behind them there was a fierce battle for fourth led by Andrea Bacci in his Mercedes C63 AMG, as the three BMWs of Mauro Trentin, Edoardo Piscopo and Christian Klien chased him closely, with Andrea Larini further back in eighth in his Jaguar. A technical problem saw the British car out of the race, leaving eighth to Benedetti’s Cadillac.

Towards the end of the race a contact between Trentin and Piscopo saw the former spin and rejoin just ahead of Benedetti, with the Team BMW Dinamic driver at least retaining seventh.

An overjoyed Berton crossed the line first for BMW’s first victory in 2013, ahead of Morbidelli, who defended spectacularly and efficiently from the charging Thomas Biagi, who collected his fourth podium in four races. Andrea Bacci came home fourth in his CAAL-Racing prepared Mercedes C63 AMG, ahead of series rookie Edoardo Piscopo and Christian Klien, returning to the series after a successful one-off with Maserati last year. Mauro Trentin and Roberto Benedetti rounded up the top ten.

Biagi leads the championship going into the next Superstars event at Slovakiaring in two weeks. The Italian has a 21 points advantage over his team-mate Liuzzi. Berton went up to third thanks to his win and is just six points behind Liuzzi, with Ferrara a further two points behind the BMW.