Jürgen Schmarl inherits Misano win from Andrea Larini

Target Competition’s Jürgen Schmarl took his maiden win in TCR Italy at Misano, after on-track winner Andrea Larini received a 25-second penalty due to a safety car infringement. The Honda driver came home just ahead of championship leader Luigi Ferrara, with Max Mugelli completing the podium in his Honda Civic FK8.

The race was shortened to 20 minutes + 1 lap after two separate incidents knocked seven cars out of the race. Davide Nardilli’s Honda Civic ended up upside down when he collided with Andrea Argenti’s Opel Astra TCR, which was standing still after having been collected by Adriano Bernazzani’s Peugeot 308 TCR.

At the restart under safety car Andrea Larini was too far off the leading car, which triggered a penalty for the Cupra driver later in the race. Two laps into the race Ferrara was making up ground, surrounded by Matteo Greco’s Cupra and Eric Scalvini’s Hyundai. The two collided at Turn 4, after which Scalvini spun and Greco was given a drive through penalty.

With just 5 minutes to go, there was a close pack fighting for the race win, as Andrea Larini was still defending his lead despite the penalty, with Schmarl defending hard from Ferrara, Mugelli and Lorenzo Nicoli’s Honda. Despite his best efforts and some entertaining fights, Ferrara was not able to pass Schmarl and finished second ahead of Mugelli and Nicoli. Edoardo Cappello was a remarkable fifth in the Otto Motorsport Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR, ahead of DSG Trophy winner Giuseppe Montalbano in his Cupra.

Giovanni altoé was seventh ahead of Matteo Bergonzini, while Nicola Baldan’s fight from the back of the grid went no further than ninth in his Pit Lane Competizioni Hyundai i30 N TCR. Stable-mate Eric Scalvini completed the top ten after his incident at Turn 4.