Italian Manuel Villa and Czech Petr Fulin respectively won the first and the second races of the second round of the Abarth 500 European Trophy on the Czech circuit of Brno.
The first race took place on Saturday. Starting from pole position, Villa kept in the lead all the way, ahead of young fellow countryman Enrico Fulgenzi and local driver Petr Fulin. Although he was overtaken by Portuguese Jorge Rodrigues in one of the first corners, Villa rapidly managed to claim first position and to impose his pace. He thus gained a small advantage that he managed outstandingly for the all duration of the race, eventually repelling an attack from Fulgenzi in the very last corner of the race. Starting from the fifth grid spot, Fulgenzi immediately climbed up to second to try and catch Villa for the lead.
Czech driver Petr Fulin started from the back of the grid but achieved a rise that allowed him to finish third.
However, the Czech displayed his best performance on Sunday when he won the second race. Fulin proved he had the right feeling with the Abarth 500 Assetto Corse. Starting from the first row, he took the lead in the fourth lap when he overtook Italian Manuel Villa. After having progressively increased the gap, Fulin was able to manage his race to finish ahead of Italian Enrico Fulgenzi, Czech Michael Vorba and Italian Manuel Villa. The latter had taken the lead when he had authoritatively overtaken Enrico Fulgenzi and Petr Fulin right after the start. However, he then had to step back and a small mistake towards the end of the race made him lose third place too.
Thanks to his victory in Race1 and to his fourth place in Race2, Villa takes the lead of the Abarth 500 European Trophy standings. The next round will take place on July 4th on the Portuguese circuit of Porto.
Race1 classification: 1. Manuel Villa (I), 7 laps in 17min06.869s; 2. Enrico Fulgenzi (I), +0.165s; 3. Petr Fulin (CZ), +3.496s; 4. Michael Vorba (CZ) +6.418s; 5. Jorge Rodrigues (P) +15.281s; 6. Benoît Perret (F) +19.877s.
Fastest lap by Enrico Fulgenzi: 2min25.108s.
Race2 classification: 1. Petr Fulin (CZ), 7 laps in 17min06.599s; 2. Enrico Fulgenzi (I), +2.296s; 3. Michael Vorba (CZ), +2.981s; 4. Manuel Villa (I), +3.439s; 5. Simone Monforte (I), +6.153s; 6. Benoît Perret (F), +16.703s; 7. Jorge Rodrigues (P), +19.934s; 8. Matous Kubu (C), +24.807s. Fastets lap by Petr Fulin: 2min25.119s - average speed: 134.03kph
Abarth 500 European Trophy provisional standings: 1. Manuel Villa (I), 61 points; 2. Lucas Guerrero (E), 43; 3. Petr Fulin (C) and Benoît Perret (F), 38; 5. Enrico Fulgenzi (I), 37.
Turin, 22 June 2009.
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