Wéber dominates EuroCup Race 1 in Brno

2010. július 31. 17:58 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Gábor Wéber monopolized the first race of the SEAT Leon EuroCup and took victory with more than 10 seconds lead ahead team mate Duarte Félix da Costa. Andrea Larini scored his first points since Monza and Imre Birizdó just missed the pole for tomorrow by finishing 9th.

The second half of the 2010 SEAT Leon EuroCup starts like the first one in Monza back in May as Zengő-Dension Team's Gábor Wéber has dominated the weekend in Brno so far and took a commanding victory from starting from pole position.

It was looking very promising already yesterday when Wéber said that the car is behaving even better than in Monza (when it was still rolled on Yokohama tyres) and provisioned his possible victory. Wéber expected that his opponents will drop back by Lap 3 and agreed that the only predictable threat would be the start but told that "it is not so easy to bass by me on the outside".

Actually it was not Massimiliano Pedalá, the driver who started from 2nd on the grid who was the strongest candidate for Wéber's lead, instead Spanish regular Diego Puyo attacked and passed Wéber at the start but the Hungarian driver stayed on the outside and retook the lead immediately in an aggressive fashion.

From the outside it is easy to state but the race was practically over for the field by the first tierce of Lap 1 as Wéber started to show an exceptional performance and it is not exaggerated to say that he was driving in his own league.

There was no lap when he wasn't the fastest driver on the circuit and won the race by 10.476 seconds ahead Duarte Félix da Costa who successfully passed Diego Puyo and took 2nd from him to provide a 1-2 finish for Zengő-Dension Team for the first time this year.

Wéber took one of the most dominant victories in the history of the series and made us to remember his initial successes in the Hungarian Renault Clio Cup where he won a few times by this large margin compared to the other racers in the field but obviously the level of competition was many levels down compared to the SEAT Leon EuroCup.

Fans were here already on Saturday morning

Success in every aspect

Not only Wéber's success provides a reason for happiness for the Zengő-Dension Team as Duarte Félix da Costa finished 2nd again after Brands Hatch and collected another 8 points to his account which means that he quickly gained 16 points which makes him a candidate for a possible podium finish at the end of the season.

Usually only happy personnel are present on the podium but sometimes other results are also reasons for being satisfied. Andrea Larini finished 6th after so many struggles in recent races and scored his first points since Monza. It is delighting to see the Italian driver getting back among the points and this is exactly the same in case of Imre Birizdó.

The young karting talent started Race 1 from 8th on the grid beside former championship leader Michael Rossi and finished 9th just outside the points on a race that was far the best for him so far this year.

Birizdó has driven on this track earlier and admitted that this is helpful for him just like the assistance provided by back to back Hungarian SEAT Leon Super Cup champion and Supercopa race winner Norbert Kiss who is also present in Brno mainly to help and guide the young driver who has made quick progress since Kiss is involved.

Championship situation improves dramatically

Brands Hatch brought a very disappointing outcome as Gábor Wéber failed to score any points as a result of his retirement on Race 1. Now the luck is turned as neither former championship leader Michael Rossi nor 2nd placed driver Eoin Murray scored points on Saturday in Brno.

Rossi was involved in an accident on Lap 1 and ended up in the gravel trap. It was looking like he retired immediately but later he drove his car a bit further but eventually retired and classified 15th which means he'll start 7 places behind the last point scorer position. Murray is in a bit better situation as he finished 10th but he is surely disappointed to lose 8th that he held for a while due a drive through penalty imposed on him. 

Since Monza only a few people are willing to mention in the team that nobody has been able to win both races of the weekend in the SEAT Leon EuroCup but just like in Italy, Gábor Wéber has got the pace to achieve this and he'll attack from 8th on the grid to make his position stronger in the championship.

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