Wéber takes 3rd and 6 point lead in EuroCup

2010. szeptember 18. 15:35 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Gábor Wéber finished Race 1 of the SEAT Leon EuroCup in Valencia on 3rd place and built up a 6 point lead over title rival Michael Rossi who retired on Lap 2. Duarte Félix da Costa earned pole from tomorrow with his 8th place after starting from 15th on the grid.

Zengő-Dension Team's Gábor Wéber has the edge now in the championship as the 4 times race winner of the SEAT Leon EuroCup finished 3rd on Race 1 in Valencia. Wéber started the race from 6th on the grid but took advantage of a contact ahead of him and managed to improve his situation right at the beginning of the race.

It was Oscar Nogués who started the race from pole position ahead Wéber's main title competitor Michael Rossi but soon after the beginning both drivers were out of the race following separate racing incidents. Nogués was involved in a contact in Turn 1 that saw him being taken out while Rossi also fell back in the order.

Wéber positioned himself to the inside of Turn 1 which is generally the safest position to be in this kind of corner and managed to overtake the cars that slowed down each other by the contact. The Hungarian driver took 2nd out of Turn 1 and drove behind Pepe Oriola who went on to win the race.

On Lap 2 Wéber went wide out of Turn 1 and this let Marcos De Diego to close in on him. In the same time Michael Rossi ended up in the gravel trap and the team immediately reacted and tried to instruct Wéber to back off and bring his car home.

However this was not possible as just like on Race 2 in Monza,  Wéber's radio failed again. Despite the notices on the pit wall showed to Wéber by team principal Zoltán Zengő, the Hungarian driver didn't let De Diego out of his reach and continued to chase him.

On the last lap Diego made a mistake and left the inside line open which was enough for Wéber to take his car right beside the one driven by De Diego. The two cars collided and caused a big uproar in the Zengő-Dension Team garage but Wéber managed to continue the race on P3 and brought the car home.

Photos from Race 1

Advantage on Wéber's side

Today's result means that Gábor Wéber now leads the championship by a 6 point advantage over Michael Rossi and Wéber will start from 6th on the grid tomorrow while his main rival is expected to be 24th.

SEAT Leon EuroCup follows the former Formula One point system in which 10 points are awarded for the winner and the last point scoring position is 8th which means that Wéber is in a good position in the championship fight if he is able to avoid any troubles tomorrow.

Da Costa and Kontra shine in the midfield

Both Duarte Félix da Costa and György Kontra showed impressive performance on Race 1 and improved their positions. Following a disappointing qualification and a 5 place grid penalty, da Costa started from only 15th on the grid but despite this massive setback he managed to take the last point scoring position and the pole for tomorrow's Race 2.

The Portuguese driver was involved in various tough battles over the race especially in its latter part including a fight with Pol Rosel, Eoin Murray and Ricardo Bravo. Eventually Rosel took 7th ahead da Costa while Murray ended up 9th.

György Kontra's recovery was similarly spectacular. The Hungarian driver - who is a regular in the Spanish SEAT Leon Supercopa - started from last on the grid due technical problems on qualifying and managed to take 15th by the end of the distance.

Race 1 didn't work out quite well for Andrea Larini and Imre Birizdó as they ended up 17th and 18th respectively which means that they'll begin tomorrow's race from the 2nd half of the grid.

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