Sergio Campana (Ibiza Racing Team) scored a dominant win in the first race of the Auto GP weekend at Marrakech.
The Modena-based driver, who took-off from the pole position, got a good start and held the point until he was called to serve the mandatory tire-change at lap 13. Once back on-track, he followed the rivals who had elected to do a late pit strategy but eventually regained the lead as the race approached its closing stages. It hasn't been an easy finale stint for him as an exhaust failure left him with a punctured radiator and a badly-smoking car but he eventually made it to checkered. Second place went to Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport). The Dutchman made his first appearance in the 2013 Auto GP after having missed Monza due to his GP2 commitments, but stayed in the hunt for the whole weekend.
The podium was rounded out by Kimiya Sato (Euronova Racing). The Japanese racer lined-up in Morocco as the championship's leader after his great Monza showing, but lost the spot to Campana. After a tough start from 6th, he recovered well and put together some impressive moves on the tight Moroccan streetcourse. Kimiya is still the only driver with three podium finishes in three races, but the record might be over soon. At the end of the race, the stewards assessed him a 60-second penalty for serving the mandatory stop on the last lap which is not allowed by the rules. The team appealed the penalty so the final results are sub-judice until the Moroccan sporting court decision.
Riccardo Agostini (MP Motorsport) took fourth. The Padua-based man had the chance to fight for victory but paid the price of a spin during lap 7 that forced him to a prompt recovery. His race pace proved good as he clocked the second fastest lap of the day. Antonio Spavone (Super Nova International) also recovered well from the 8th spot on the grid to round out the top-5.
Two more drivers had their say for the podium although none of them managed to accomplish that feature. Front row starter Narain Karthikeyan (Zele Racing) had logged the fastest lap of practice and battled with Ghinzani Motorsport's Robert Visoiu until their pit-stop. The Romanian racer, who had moved on his Indian colleague on lap 9, missed braking point at the start of the pit-lane and lost the spot again. Unfortunately for Karthikeyan, a wheel nut issue at Zele Racing cost them several seconds, although he ended up in 6th and scored the fastest lap of the day. Despite his youth mistake, Visoiu left a strong impression until he hit trouble with 2 to go when he suffered a broken suspension rocker after his car took-off on a kerb. Visoiu was thus forced to retire not too much later.
Vittorio Girelli, running for Super Nova International, had finished in 7th but was penalized 2 seconds for a yellow flag pass and lost two spots. The front row for Race 2 went to the consistent Andrea Roda (Virtuosi UK) and Luciano Bacheta (Zele Racing), who made the best out of the same chance in Monza by scoring a podium finish.
Race 2 will take-off at 10:35 in Morocco, 12:35 CET, and will be televised live by Eurosport.
Sergio Campana (Ibiza Racing Team): I had high expectations for this race because last year's win made me confident. We started with the right foot in qualifying. In the first part of the race I was slightly faster than the others and built a solid advantage. During the pit-stop then I heard a noise coming from the car so I was concerned but despite the oil leak in the closing stages, I managed to cross the finish line in the lead.
Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport): We ended up qualifying with the fourth fastest laptime which was a good position to start with. Then we made major changes before the race and everything became an unknown variable. I started well, stayed out of trouble, and started to push hard as soon as I could, managing to end up onto the podium.
Kimiya Sato (Euronova Racing): I hadn't the greatest start but I recovered with many passes and that enabled me to take third in a moment when I was in danger of being blocked in the pack. We suffered from some issues in practice and qualifying but I scored some valuable points so I'm still close to the top of the points charts.
