Photo: ACI Sport

Nicola Baldan braced for damage limitation at Mugello after double win at Monza

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Nicola Baldan won the two TCR Italy races held at Monza in his Pit Lane Competizioni in his SEAT León TCR. For the entire duration of the second race the Veneto-based driver had his title rival Eric Scalvini in his mirrors, the Honda driver coming close to the race winner in the final stages of the race.

“I felt okay from the very beginning, so I pushed to open a gap to Scalvini”, said Baldan to TouringCarTimes. “With eight minutes to go I was a bit on the limit, I managed the gap but I was a bit struggling. Eric has a great car and he is a very good driver, I was too good a teacher back in his days and he was very good at learning, hats off to him.”

Baldan is concerned about the pace of the Honda, as Scalvini’s car was carrying 30 kilos of success ballast at Monza.

“It’s kind of scary to see that despite the ballast he was more or less as quick as I was”, said the SEAT driver. “Even looking at the International Series you can see there isn’t much to do against the Hondas, they got two wins with (Attila) Tassi and the SEATs were struggling. (Pepe) Oriola did a great second race, but they need a bit of luck to get to the front, and it’s the same here.”

The Pit Lane Competizioni driver is aware he could have a much harder time at Mugello in three weeks, where the high speed nature of the track combined with the full ballast may take its toll on the León in terms of performance.

“I will have 30 kilos of ballast, and with the elevation changes and the heat we expect it’s going to be quite messy. We have to brace ourselves to limit the damages, I will have to go for the podium because I don’t think I will be able to win. There’s also (Kevin) Giacon with the Opel and with the lighter Hondas it’s going to be tough.”

Scalvini holds an eight-point margin over Baldan, with Audi’s Plamen Kralev a further 40 points back. Massimiliano Gagliano had a positive weekend after his switch to Pit Lane Competizioni, as two podiums in his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR mean he is now fourth in the championship, 11 points shy of Kralev.