Ramiro Zago clinches his second victory of the season at Monza
MM Motorsport’s Ramiro Zago led from lights-to-flag race at Monza to claim the victory in Sunday’s second TCR Italy race.
Zago launched perfectly from second place on the reverse grid to take the lead at the start, ahead of Petr Cizek and the Audis of Francesco Cardone, Matteo Poloni and Denis Babuin.
The safety car was called into action on lap one as Cupra drivers Sandro Pelatti and Raffaele Gurrieri collided at Turn 1, with the latter stranded on the track.
The race was relaunched on lap three, with Zago leading ahead of Cardone, who had overtaken Cizek and was under investigation for an alleged move before the green flag.
The Czech driver came under fire from Poloni at La Roggia, losing third place, with the Audi driver overtaking Cardone before the end of the lap to climb to second place.
Cizek overtook Cardone for third place on lap four, but the battle between the two soon welcomed Babuin, with the three coming side-by-side several times.
Meanwhile, Poloni closed the gap to Zago to under a second on lap six, with the Audi driver already in the Honda’s slipstream.
Further back, championship leader Michele Imberti struggled in sixth place with his 30 kilos of compensation weight, coming under fire from Audi driver Carlo Alberto Bocca.
Cardone received a five-second time penalty for overtaking Cizek before the white line at the restart, as the Czech driver lost fourth position to Babuin on lap seven.
Zago opened a gap to Poloni from lap nine, as the Audi driver sought to cool his car and tyres. Imberti went past Cizek for fifth positon on lap ten, whist Bocca received various driving standards and track limits warnings as he overtook Cizek for sixth position.
Zago scored the victory at the chequered flag, despite Poloni’s last lap efforts, and with Babuin completing the podium.
Imberti was fourth, ahead of Bocca and Cardone, who fell to sixth position due to his time penalty, despite crossing the line initially in third.
Cizek finished seventh, ahead of Pelatti and Nicola Guida. Ramazan Kaya completed the top ten.
“It has been an incredible weekend, fastest in both practices but we lacked a bit in some sectors qualy, but we still had a solid weekend,” Zago said after the race. “The race was very difficult, it’s very hot here, not like in Argentina, where it’s winter now.
“Very happy to be here and we are close in the championship,” the Argentinean concluded.
Imberti still leads the championship after the Monza round with 231 points, but having reduced his advantage to Zago to just nine. Poloni is third, 39 points adrift.
The next round of the 2026 TCR Italy season takes place at Mugello on the 24-26th of July.
