SEVENHILLS IN A GREAT NIGHT-TIME BRAWL AT MISANO

Plenty of excitement at Misano Adriatico for the first night race of the RS CUP. It was a thrilling start, as just a few dozen metres after the lights went out Max Ciocca was caught up in a “dubious” pile-up, damaging his front end. Ciocca kept control of the Clio and returned to the pits, but the SevenHills mechanics could only confirm that he was unable to continue. Uguccioni also spun to avoid the cars involved in the incident, but fortunately everyone missed him and he was able to restart, albeit behind. Tartabini made a good start and stayed in touch with the leading group, running fourth behind Franca and ahead of Casciandrini. Bonifazi and Stefani also defended well, running close to the overall top ten, while Massaro took advantage of the chaos to threaten Beltrami in the fight for victory among the naturally aspirated cars. Halfway through the race the driver from Terni passed Beltrami, but unfortunately the metallic grey car did not go along with Massaro’s dreams of glory, as he was rear-ended on the final lap and spun. Meanwhile Tartabini resisted, not without difficulty, the attacks of Casciandrini and held on to fourth place. Towards the end Stefani passed Bonifazi, then attacked Fazioli, whose front bumper had been damaged in a clash with Sturla. For his part, Bonifazi was attacked by the young Pietro Alessi and lost a position. With a little under two minutes to go, Casciandrini passed Tartabini at the first S-bend, relegating him to fifth overall. At that very moment the driver from the Marche had been given a five-second penalty for a “questionable” track limits violation. Andrea Bonifazi received the same sanction on the last lap. In the end Tartabini finished a deserved fifth. Despite his efforts Stefani could not pass Fazioli, but the latter was penalised, promoting the Veneto driver to seventh behind Lilli. Bonifazi finished ninth behind Pietro Alessi, while Massaro dropped down the order and finished outside the podium places among the naturally aspirated cars, behind Beltrami, Alunni and Nunzio Anastasi. Behind the Sicilian came Uguccioni, who gritted his teeth and brought the car home. This afternoon, Race 2 will be run, again over twenty-five minutes.