Néstor Girolami led the way into the first corner from the reversed grid pole, while alongside him Ignacio Montenegro ran too deep and cut the first corner; Thed Björk cut the inside of the corner as well to move ahead of Girolami. Montenegro rejoined ahead of both of them, then him and Björk gave back the positions, allowing Girolami back into the lead.

The safety car was out at the start of lap 2, as the CUPRA of John Filippi was spun into the gravel pushed by another car. When the race restarted, Comte blasted past Montenegro for third down the inside of the Parabolica and then joined the top two battle. Norbert Michelisz also passed the Montenegro for fifth at Prima Variante.

Comte was now battling Björk for second, going around the outside into the Prima Variante at the start of lap 7, before completing the pass on the way through Curva Grande to move into second. Two laps later, Comte took the lead, getting a good exit from the first corner and powering past Girolami at Curva Grande.

Girolami was left to defend hard against Björk and Michelisz all the way to the finish but managed to hold on to second. Comte won the race by 1.5 seconds over Girolami, with Bjork completing the podium.

Esteban Guerrieri made good progress again to move from P14 on the grid to seventh, and with Yann Ehrlacher finishing two positions behind him in ninth, closes to 16 points in the standings that are still led by the French driver. Santiago Urrutia remains third, 11 points behind Girolami.

Drivers' quotes after Race 2

Aurélien Comte, 1st: “The car was incredible. I had a good start and was up to P4. I focussed on my driving and was careful with the tyres; I had a very good race and took the lead. The victory is for my wife, as it’s been a difficult week for my family, so for me I’m happy with the good result. Thanks so much to SP Compétition and CUPRA who had done a great job together. I really enjoyed fighting with the drivers who were in front of me; these guys were very clean in terms of fights.”

Néstor Girolami, 2nd: “Before coming to Monza, we knew this track was probably the worst for the weight and carrying the 30kg was a challenge, so I’m super-glad that we managed to be in the top ten in qualifying. I knew having a good launch was important, I put on the new tyres, but then after two laps the kilos started to feel more and more, I defended my position with Thed, and we had a very clean race. In the end, when Aurélien was on my bumper, I tried my best, but he made a good move.”

Thed Björk, 3rd: “I was going forward all the time, fighting, fighting, but then Norbi arrived at the end, and I also had to look in the mirror. Fighting with two cars is not so easy. At T1 at the start, we came down three-wide into the corner and we didn’t look at the braking point, we just looked at each other. I’ve never braked that late ever. It was a nice race, I’m very happy to be third again, it was not easy.”

The next event takes place at the Circuito de Vila Real in Portugal in two weeks.

Race 2
1. Aurélien Comte (SP Compétition, CUPRA Leon VZ), 12 laps
2. Néstor Girolami (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 1.446
3. Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 1.891 ...

Championship points
1. Y. Ehrlacher, 193 pts; 2. E. Guerrieri, 177; 3. S. Urrutia, 166 ...