Race 1 – Borkovic wins dramatic race

19.05.13
A dramatic first ETCC race at the Salzburgring saw victory go to the Super 2000 SEAT Leon of Dušan Borković, with no fewer than four Single-Make Trophy cars filling the rest of the top five places

Aurélien Comte, Anton Ladygin, Mario Dablander and Jordi Oriola therefore made it an all-SEAT top five, with Mat’o Homola’s BMW finishing sixth. Best of the S1600 entrants was Kevin Krammes, who finished in 18th place.

By far the biggest incident of the race came on lap 4, when there was contact between the SEAT of Jordi Oriola and Petr Fulín’s BMW at Turn 7. The collision sent Fulín spinning across the track and he collected Andreas Pfister’s SMT SEAT León before both cars struck the barriers. Several laps were then run behind the safety car before the red flags came out. Both Fulín – the current S2000 series leader – and Pfister, who was second in the SMT standings, took no further part in proceedings as their cars were too badly damaged.

The weather also played its part in the drama. The race began dry, but rain began to fall during the opening lap and the Stewards declared a wet track during the safety car period. The stoppage period then allowed the teams to switch tyres before the restart. Finally, two drivers were given drive-through penalties; Igor Skuz, who was judged to have made a false start, and Oriola for his part in the incident on lap 4.

Key moments
Lap 1 – Contact between Oriola and Fulín just after the start. Karamyshev spun at T5. It began raining.
Lap 2 – Pfister up to 2nd and Borković up to 3rd. Oriola dropped to 5th. Sládecka up to 6th.
Lap 3 – Skuz given a drive-through penalty for a false start.
Lap 4 – Borković, Fulín and Pfister three-abreast. Contact between Oriola and Fulín, who then hit Pfister. Pfister and Fulín into the barriers at T7. Safety car deployed.
Lap 6 – Under the safety car, a wet track was declared
Lap 8 – Red flag
Lap 9 – Formation lap
Lap 10 – Restart. Sládecka straight on at T1. Oriola given a drive-through penalty. Štádler into the gravel at T1.
Lap 11 – Comte passed Homola for 3rd. Matějovský now 5th and Ladygin 6th. ‘Romeo Luciano’ spun and rejoined. Dablander up to 7th.
Lap 12 – Ladygin passed Matějovský for 5th
Lap 13 – Oriola into the pits for his penalty. Borković now led, ahead of Comte, Ladygin and Dablander. Skuz passed Nagy for 9th
Lap 14 – Oriola passed Homola for 5th. Nagy, Rikli and Hamilton all passed Treml for 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.