Photo: ETCC Media

José Rodrigues and Plamen Kralev penalised for Race 1 incidents

Target Competition’s José Rodrigues has lost his Race 1 podium at Vila Real after the Portuguese driver was hit with a 30-second penalty for a last lap incident with the SEAT of Igor Stefanovski, while the Kraf Audi driver Plamen Kralev was given a second penalty for the same race.

Kralev had been given an in-race drive-through penalty by the stewards after he knocked the Honda of Peter Rikli out of seventh place at Turn 6.

The Bulgarian recovered to finish fifth, was discovered to have exceeded the speed limit during his stop and so was given a further 30-second penalty which drops him to eighth in the final classification.

Rodrigues entertained the partisan crowds with a race-long battle with Macedonia’s Igor Stefanovski, but after cutting the chicane and then knocking the SEAT wide at the next turn, the stewards chose to penalise the Honda driver with a 30-second penalty, elevating Stefanovski back to third and dropping Rodrigues to fourth in the final classification.

Christjohannes Schreiber was also found to have crossed the pit exit line in Race 1 and was given a 30-second penalty. As Schreiber wasn’t classified in the first race after retiring, the stewards applied to the penalty to the Race 2 result.

Although Race 2 was red flagged after Schreiber crashed out on lap five, on countback Schreiber was classified in ninth in the final result, but the penalty will drop him to 11th in the final order and outside of the points.