TCR World and life

28 DSG EUROPE Volpato-Almeida claiminauguralwin THE NEW EUROPEAN ENDURANCE SERIES KICKED OFF AT MISANO Gabriele Volpato and Rodrigo Almeida won the inaugural round of the new TCR DSG Europe series, leading an Élite Motorsport Volkswagen 1-2 in a strategic race and taking advantage of an early safety car to get the overlap on their team-mates Alfredo De Matteo and Alessandro Altoè, while the pole- sitting Team Italy Audi of Ermanno Dionisio-Giacomo Barri suffered from a drive-through penalty and had to settle for third position. Dionisio started from pole position, but De Matteo drove straight into the lead; behind Dionisio, there was an intense battle between the NOS Racing Volkswagen of Gabriele Giorgi and Volpato, which saw the latter drop two spots behind the BF Motorsport Audi of Ronnie Valori and the Volkswagen of ‘Linos’. Dionisio then slowed out of second place at the start of lap seven, dropping all the way behind Volpato just before the second-placed Giorgi crashed out of the race at Turn 14, bringing out the safety car. Volpato, Dionisio and Nicola Novaglio opted to take early pit stops during the safety car period, although it was too early for a driver change, but were able to gain time while the field was held back. The race restarted with De Matteo leading ahead of ‘Linos’ and Piero Necchi’s Tecniengines Audi; De Matteo again started to build a gap to the cars behind him. The first wave of pit stops were completed around laps 25 and 26, with De Matteo pitting from the lead and handing over to Altoè, with Volpato and Dionisio now moving up to first and second. It was just over