A race that was anything but plain sailing, with trouble hitting many of his rivals.
Championship leader Yann Ehrlacher came through to finish second, while former leader Esteban Guerrieri put on a star drive to go from tenth to fifth.
Michelisz got away well from pole, while Aurélien Comte managed to get around the outside of the second-placed Mikel Azcona into T1 to move into P2. Further behind there was trouble as Ma Qing Hua clipped the rear of John Filippi’s car and spun him into Ruben Volt. Ma and Filippi retired, while Volt was able to rejoin.
Michelisz was under pressure from Comte, with the French driver making a near successful dive at Variante del Rettifilo, but Michelisz slightly cut the corner to stay ahead. Comte then went wide at Lesmo 2 and ran into the gravel; he managed to rejoin without losing positions, but at the end of the lap he retired with a front-left puncture and. On the same lap, Santiago Urrutia gave up fourth to teammate Thed Bjork before pulling into the pits with a turbo issue; one lap later Azcona was the next of the main contenders to hit trouble with tyres, and came into the pits, with Ehrlacher now up to second ahead of Björk. Guerrieri continued to charge through the order and on the final lap he passed Néstor Girolami for fifth, crossing the line just behind his teammate Ignacio Montenegro.
Nothing could stop Michelisz from claiming the victory, 1.7 seconds clear of Ehrlacher.
The best of the guest stars was Damiano Reduzzi who avoided troubles to finish an impressive seventh, ahead of Jacopo Cimenes who recovered to eighth despite starting from the pit lane having just taken part in the TCR Italy race just before.
Ehrlacher continues to lead the championship and is now 20 points clear of Guerrieri who moves back to second position, while Michelisz has climbed to fifth, 78 points behind.
Drivers' quotes after Race 1
Norbert Michelisz, 1st: “The focus for me was to have a good start and stay in front, because if you are ahead, it’s a bit easier to manage things. Comte was faster than me and was putting a lot of pressure; he was close to overtaking me twice, but after he got a puncture, I realised there was a gap to Mikel (Azcona). Then when I didn’t see Mikel anymore, I asked the team to inform me about the gap behind. Yann (Ehrlacher) was 2-3 seconds behind, which gave me the possibility to take care of the tyres. My car was perfect, I felt in control, and it was a wonderful day for me.”
Yann Ehrlacher, 2nd: “Congratulations to Norbi and Thed, especially to Thed, as we worked as a team. We worked in safe mode to make sure we secured points for Cyan Racing. I’m also happy to see Norbi back to where he belongs. We came here with 40kg of ballast and not expecting much, so to imagine we could be P2 would have been unrealistic. Right now, it’s cool to be P1 in the championship, but it’s a long season, we’ve only done seven races out of 20.”
Thed Björk, 3rd: “I like Italy, and I like the heat - it’s warm in the car, but I had a really good race. I started seventh and we’ve taken good points. I was hoping for more in qualifying as I don’t have any weight, but Norbi completely destroyed us, so I’m very happy to be on the podium after starting P7.”
The second race starts at 11:40 local time on Sunday morning, with the Hyundai of Girolami on pole.
Race 1
1. Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 11 laps
2. Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
3. Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL) ...
Championship points
1. Y. Ehrlacher, 183 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 163; 3. S. Urrutia, 150 ...
