Narain Karthikeyan (Super Nova International) took a good win in the first race of the Auto GP weekend at Brno. The Czech track, hosting the final round of the 2013 season, delivered once again the crowds with a nice environment for racing. After making a quick getaway at the start, the Indian was able to jump in front of both the front row starters. He then managed his advantage during the pit-stop phases and eventually crossed the line in first place. With 195 points to his toll, Karthikeyan is currently trailing his team-mate for the championship lead, with Ghirelli still on top with 210 points. The Italian suffered from an issue at the start and lost ground also to the Ghinzani Motorsport pair of Robert Visoiu and Kevin Giovesi.
Unfortunately for him, Giovesi was stopped by a clutch problem during the first lap, while the Romanian faced Ghirelli throughout the day before settling for third and scoring his second podium finish of the season. Kimiya Sato, driving for Euronova Racing, ended up with a fourth place. The Japanese man, who is celebrating his 24th birthday, recovered several positions by going for an early pit-stop and is still has some chances for the title. Sergio Campana (Ibiza Racing Team) could not accomplish the same feature as he had to content with 6th place, which didn't allow him to mathematically stay into the hunt. The top-5 was rounded out by Zele Racing's Tamas Pal Kiss, who also logged the fastest lap of the day en-route to edging Campana and Andrea Roda (Virtuosi UK).
Roberto La Rocca, driving for Comtec by Virtuosi, took 8th place and the pole spot for Race 2 while the points zone was rounded out by Dutchman Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport) and Russian Max Snegirev (Virtuosi UK).
Narain Karthikeyan (Super Nova International): “I scored my fifth win this season and it helped me to fight back to second place in standings, plus I also have more hopes to fight for the title tomorrow. Today I drove a good race, with a nice start, and I held a quick pace despite the rear tire wear”.
Vittorio Ghirelli (Super Nova International): “At the start I suffered from a technical glitch that cost me some valuable positions.I passed Giovesi during the first lap and also moved on Visoiu after the pit-stop. Today's second place helped me to keep the advantage intact in standings. Now I'm looking forward to fight for the title tomorrow".
Robert Visoiu (Ghinzani Motorsport): “I'm very happy to be back onto the podium. We always had a good potential during the season, but for several reasons we didn't put all the strings together. I will try to do it all again tomorrow although it won’t be easy with the reverse grid".
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