Imberti and Taylor are victorious in TCR Italy at Mugello
Michele Imberti and Nicolas Taylor took a win each at the penultimate weekend of the TCR Italy championship at Mugello, with Taylor closing the gap on title rival Nicola Baldan to just three points.
The two Audi stablemates the only realistic contenders for the title in the season finale at Misano on 10/12 October.
Saturday, Imberti converted his pole position in his first win of the season, while Taylor won Sunday’s race after a superb overtaking on the early leader Matteo Poloni.
Race 1 - Imberti had showed stunning pace in qualifying and won the pole by just 26-thousandths ahead of Cosimo Barberini. At the start, Barberini crawled at the line and messed up, dropping to seventh, which allowed Alex Ley and Gabriele Covini into second and third. Barberini was then involved in a battle with title contender Poloni, they made contact at the Scarperia bend, with Poloni out of the race and the safety car called. Barberini picked up both a time penalty for his false start as well as a drive-through for the incident with Poloni.
At the restart, Baldan dived past Covini for third with Taylor also moving ahead of the Hyundai driver. There was another safety car as Francesco Cardone’s Audi went off into the gravel, during which Barberini served his drive-through penalty which kept him on the tail of the field at the restart.
Imberti controlled the pace for the final stint, while Pietro Alessi was flying through the field after a difficult qualifying and passed Taylor and Covini in one move advancing to fourth. Taylor was battling to keep back Covini right until the end to finished fifth, while Imberti won ahead of Ley and Baldan.
Race 2 – Poloni was on pole on the reversed grid as the started was behind the safety car due to damp conditions. Poloni led the way ahead of Michał Bartoszuk and Taylor who Taylor managed to get past Bartoszuk with a move down the inside at San Donato and set about chasing Poloni. With two minutes to spare, Taylor took the lead from Poloni with a repeat of the move he made on Bartoszuk, while Baldan was able to grab third from the Polish driver; at the same time Ley dived past his own teammate Covini for fifth with Imberti following him through into sixth.
Taylor held on to win ahead of Poloni and Baldan, while Ley was able to grab one more place, making a move down the inside of Bartoszuk at the final corner.
DSG – Points leader Eric Brigliadori and his SF Squadra Corse CUPRA took his sixth win of the season in the first race, starting from the pole and running away. His teammate Matteo Roccadelli followed him, but in the last part of the race slowed with tyre issues and was passed by the pair of Planet Motorsport of Audi cars driven by series newcomer Gabriele Torelli and Mattia Lancellotti, who later swapped positions. In the second race, Brigliadori experienced his second DNF of the season after an incident with Andrea Palazzo. Torelli took the lead passing Giacomo Prandelli and then again gave up the position to his teammate Lancellotti, while Roccadelli moved up into third. This meant that Brigliadori’s lead has been reduced to twenty points over Roccadelli, with Lancellotti 61 points adrift.
Race 1
- Michele Imberti (Kombat Motorsport, Hyundai Elantra N), 14 laps
- Alex Ley (BRC Racing Team, Hyundai Elantra N), 3.202
- Nicola Baldan (AIKOA Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 7.870
Race 2
- Nicolas Taylor (PMA Motorsport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps
- Matteo Poloni (Gear Works, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2.384
- Nicola Baldan (AIKOA Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 2.632
Championship points - SEQ
- N. Baldan, 365 pts; 2. N. Taylor, 362; 3. M. Poloni, 285
Championship points - DSG
- E. Brigliadori, 385 pts.; 2. M. Roccadelli, 365; 3. M. Lancellotti, 324
Picture: ACI Sport
