Lunardi wins, Moulton dominates...

What a race! The second round at Monza was an intense battle, where the top places hung in the balance right down to the chequered flag. The 2007 champion Dino Lunardi managed to pull away from the rest of the pack, as he had done yesterday, to claim his second win of the weekend. At the end of the first meeting of the season, Briton Simon Moulton leads the standings, in front of a promising field.

Despite an incredibly tight battle throughout the field, all the drivers crossed the finish line on the same lap of Sunday’s race. It’s clear to see that the cars are perfectly equal, which promises a close battle for the championship throughout the year.

Having once again started from pole position, Dino Lunardi – who was not taking championship points – got the best start and was able to pull out a decent margin over his rivals after just five laps, unlike the previous race. The reason for his superiority was down to a hectic scrap between Simon Moulton, Julien Beltoise, Grégory Guilvert and Gaël Castelli.

What with all the passing manoeuvres, it was impossible to predict who would win as the lead changed lap by lap – not to mention corner by corner! While Castelli seemed to lose contact halfway through the race, he fought back strongly – together with Marcel Sciabbarrasi and Sébastien Dhouailly – to keep people guessing all the way to the end. Simon Moulton had the last word on the final lap, to the detriment of Beltoise – who made a mistake but came away with the fastest race lap.

Guilvert claimed the final podium place in front of Sciabbarrasi, who overtook Castelli on the last lap. Dhouailly ended up in front of Alexandre Rambure, who was left to fight on his own after spinning just three laps from the end. Marlène Broggi had a trouble-free run to ninth and was the top lady driver, defeating Corentine Quiniou who ran in tandem with Frederic Bry for much of the race.

Simon MOULTON: « What a start to the championship! I really enjoyed myself as the car was absolutely perfect all weekend, but also because the battles on the track were all very exciting but fair. It’s great to be leading the championship going into Pau. »

Dino LUNARDI: « This is my only such race of the season. As well as assessing the technicalimprovements that we have made, my goal was also to get more familiar with the track before the FIA GT race that I will compete on here with a Viper in three week’s time. I really enjoyed driving what was a perfect car, thanks to my RBA team. »

Julien BELTOISE: « I didn’t actually know that we were on the last lap. Simon and Grégory got past me on the last lap, but I was only able to get Greg back! Nonetheless, I’m delighted with my weekend. There’s still a lot of work for me to do to fully understand the car, but although it was a brilliant battle I’m still disappointed that we had a few problems, making it easier for Dino to get away. »

Next race: PAU (WTCC): 31 May – 1 June 

1. D. Lunardi, 11t. en 22’49’’183 – 2. S. Moulton à 3’’568 – 3. J. Beltoise à 3’’717 – 4. G. Guilvert à 3’’956 – 5. M. Sciabbarrasi à 7’’174 – 6. G. Castelli à 7’’343 – 7. S. Dhouailly à 7’’959 – 8. A. Rambure à 18’’358 – 9. M. Broggi à 30’’496 – 10. D. Pouget à 37’’959, etc. BL : J. Beltoise, 2’04’’247 (moy : 169,211 km/h) / PP : D. Lunardi, 2’02’’784 (moy : 169,849 km/h).

1 MOULTON Simon 41

2 BELTOISE Julien 40

3ex SCIABBARRASI Marcel 24

CASTELLI Gaël 24

5 DHOUAILLY Sébastien 18

6 GUILVERT Grégory 17

7 BROGGI Marlène 13

8 POUGET David 9

9 MIGINIAC Jean-Charles 8

10 RAMBURE Alexandre 7

11ex QUINIOU Corentine 6

12 BRY Frédéric 6

- Cécile Estenave -

photos will be on automobilsport.com under PHOTOS - LE MANS SERIES