Pedro Salvador takes dominant victory at Vila Real
Speedy Motorsport’s Pedro Salvador took a lights-to-flag victory at Vila Real to extend his lead in the TCR Portugal series in a race only featuring five TCR specification cars.
At the start, Salvador took advantage of his pole position to take the lead, with Armando Parente, driving a Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, winning a three-way side-by-side battle with Rafael Lobato, driving a Peugeot 308, and José Correia, running in a different class, for second place at Turn 4.
Salvador built a gap over Parente, who came under increasing pressure from Lobato, with the Volkswagen driver going straight at the second chicane on lap four to lose time.
The pair came together again at the first chicane three laps later, but Parente managed to stay ahead as Lobato wasn’t able to overtake going up the hill. A lap later, the pair encountered the first back markers, with Lobato losing ground.
Lobato managed to regain the lost ground and went side-by-side with Parente at the exit of Turn 7 on the penultimate lap, with the pair running together until the Peugeot driver took second place braking towards Turn 8.
At the chequered flag, Salvador took his second victory of the season, followed by Lobato and Parente who fell behind during the last lap.
Francisco Carvalho was fourth at the wheel of his Audi RS 3 LMS, with Manuel Giao in fifth with the sole Kia Cee’d on the grid. Joao Sousa, in the second Audi, did not finish the race due to a technical issue.
Salvador has extended his lead in the championship to 70 points, followed by Parente and Cautela on 55 points. Abreu and Lobato are tied in third place with 53 points.
Race 2 is scheduled for tomorrow at 12:20 local time.
