2010. July 3. 17:30 | no comments yet.  author: Viktor Adorján

Both Norbert Kiss and Duarte Félix da Costa suffered the effects of racing incidents that they were involved in during the initial stage of Race 1 of the SEAT Leon Supercopa in Portimao. Kiss was able to recover on Race 2 but couldn't pass back to back winner Oscar Nogués.

Survival was Norbert Kiss's only stated aim after yesterday's qualifying session on which he took pole position for today's Race 1 of the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa in Portimao. The Hungarian driver said that he would try everything to avoid the possible incidents with other drivers, he even agreed to let go a few of his opponents with the outlook for the third race on Sunday.

He started the race with this view and successfully came away from the start at the front of the field leading Oscar Nogués, Marc Carol while 6th placed starter Duarte Félix da Costa fell back to 11th due an incident with Fredrik Nordstrom that was a subject of an investigation. The Portuguese driver was not aware after the race who hit him but he was quite upset by the way his race turned out.

At the end of lap 1 Nogués closed in on Kiss whose tyres were not as good as the ones used by the Spanish driver who touched Kiss and pushed him off the racing line.

Kiss's onboard footage reveals that the Hungarian driver lost momentum as a result this incident which let Marc Carol to stick the nose of his car beside Kiss's car but there was not enough room to figure out a proper overtaking. Carol and Kiss collided and the Hungarian driver ended up in the gravel with four wheels. 

Soon he was able to recover and continue his race on 9th place but this left Nogués a comfortable advantage to cruise towards the victory which he took by 2.722 seconds ahead of Alvaro Fontes and local driver Vitor Souto.

The 9th place meant that Norbert Kiss was in a serious trouble as Race 2 was due to begin with a standing start and beside the aim to score as many points as possible, Kiss needed to take 6th by the end of Race 2. The 25 years old driver was able to gain two positions and finished 7th on Race 1 despite he had the pace to move higher up but simply there was not enough time and possibility to do that.

As a result of these incidents Race 1 ended with a disappointment for Norbert Kiss and Duarte Félix da Costa who finished only 13th after recovering from 15th.

Only György Kontra and Attila Solti could make considerable progresses as Kontra finished 21st coming from 23rd on the grid and Solti finishing 25th from 28th.

Race 1 and 2 of SEAT Leon Supercopa from Portimao

A podium in that might make life hard

Considering the race format of the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa and the reward system, it is not always easy to decide what result is the best for a driver. Starting from P7 on the grid the most important thing for Norbert Kiss was to survive again and try to take 6th place to get the pole position again for the feature race on Sunday that has got double value compared to the half distance races on Saturday.

Finishing higher up in the order results worse starting position for the more valuable feature race but this is not the nature of a racing driver to care much about these kind of strategies. Therefore it was not a surprise that Norbert Kiss put on an impressive standing start again and moved up to P3 immediately and soon took second and went after Oscar Nogués.

From then the race became a hunt for Norbert Kiss as he chased Nogués but was only able to get within 0.5 seconds for the end of the race. Things shaped up similarly for Duarte Félix da Costa as he also made a good start and moved up to 10th but stucked there which means he will need to start tomorrow's race from the midfield.

The Portuguese driver was well aware of this situation before the start of the race, he explained that finishing high in the order on Race 1 is essential for the rest of the weekend but he was again hit by bad luck like in the EuroCup.

Race 2 couldn't work out without a retirement from the Zengő-Dension Team fleet as György Kontra slid into the gravel on Lap 1. Attila Solti successfully improved 5 positions on his starting place and finished the race on the 20th position.

Only one race is left for the field in Portugal this year, the feature race will take place on Sunday at 10:35 AM local time.

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