Maiden TCR Europe wins for Baldan and Losonczy
Italian veteran Nicola Baldan and Hungarian youngster Levente Losonczy claimed their maiden TCR Europe victories in the second event of the season at Zolder.
Starting from pole position in his Audi RS 3 LMS, Baldan dominated the first race, keeping Aurélien Comte at safe distance, while Ruben Volt was able to take the third step of the podium after a superb overtaking move on Franco Girolami.
Losonczy became the second first-time new winner in a wild second race ahead of his ALM Motorsport teammate Volt and Girolami who was able to stay relatively out of trouble to pick up important points for the drivers’ championship with third.
The Argentine is now on equal points with the leader Comte, while Baldan is placed third, 23 points behind the pair.
Race 1 – Baldan had outpaced the field in Qualifying setting the pole with a margin of four tenths ahead of Comte. The Italian driver started well, and Comte slotted into second, while Girolami got the jump on Volt for third and Ignacio Montenegro made a slow start from fifth on the grid. The Argentine youngster was able to recover, battling with Rubén and Felipe Fernández in the closing stages to finish seventh. After pitting for a puncture, Giovanni Scamardi rejoined behind the leading duo of Baldan and Comte, just ahead of Girolami who was under pressure from Volt.
Volt was able to make his way past, claiming the last podium position on lap 10. Up front, Baldan was chased by Comte, but the Frenchman ran out of time to make an attack, leaving Baldan to claim his first win.
Race 2 – Losonczy and Felipe Fernández were on the front row of the reversed grid, with the Hungarian bogging down at the start and leaving Fernández with the lead. Local driver Scamardi was the star on the opening lap, darting around Losonczy for second. Scamardi then dived around the outside of Fernández at the Villeneuve chicane to take the lead. This caused Fernández to run wide, allowing Losonczy a run back at him. They made contact with Fernández sliding into Viktor Davidovski’s car that went off and rejoined right in front of Comte who ran wide and fell to the back of the pack. Scamardi was leading ahead of Losonczy, with Girolami promoted to third in the melee.
Scamardi led until lap 7, but then his pace faded due to a braking issue. Losonczy was able to take the lead by the end of the lap with Girolami following him through to second. Scamardi’s race ended two corners later when Davidovski locked up at T12 and slammed into his side. With both cars in the gravel, the race was held behind the safety car until lap 13. At the restart, Losonczy ran wide into T1 which let Girolami into the lead, but Losonczy came right back at him at T2 and took back the lead, with Volt able to come through and move up to second. Losonczy held on to win the race by half a second over Volt, with Girolami completing the podium. Comte recovered from the back to finish fifth behind Felipe Fernández.
The next event of TCR Europe will be in two weeks at the Salzburgring.
Zolder – Race 1
- Nicola Baldan (Baldan Group, Audi RS 3 LMS), 14 laps
- Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 0.769
- Ruben Volt (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 5.201
Zolder – Race 2
- Levente Losonczy (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 16 laps
- Ruben Volt (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5), 0.583
- Franco Girolami (Monlau Motorsport, CUPRA Leon VZ), 1.320
Championship points
- A. Comte, 146 pts; 2. F. Girolami, 146; 3. N. Baldan, 123
Picture: TCR Europe/Olli Dekens
