Audi Sport Italia Press Release
- Tomas Kostka now runner-up in points standings after P8 finish
- Davide Stancheris rallies to 6th place after race one retirement
Scarperia, Italy – Mugello race two denied again Audi Sport Italia drivers a podium finish, however the sixth round countng towards the 2014 EuroV8 Series crown offered Ermanno Dionisio another enticing opportunity to chase his maiden Audi win. For as long as four gritty laps, that is. The Monaco-based Italian had an excellent start barreling to P3 at the first corner and then rolling the dice with Mimmo Schiattarella going up Arrabbiate bends in a move that propelled him into a surprising runner-up spot. Dionisio was definitely making good use of the fresh engine that his RS 5 had been fitted after retirement in race one. The leading BMW M3, in the hands of Niccolo Mercatali was therefore put under constatnt pressure, while the two pulled away from the pack. But their advantage vanished suddenly on lap four as the safety car was summoned on track remove the wrecked car of former series leader Francesco Sini.
As the bunched up field restarted, the edge in displacement and power of race one winner Nicola Baldan' Mercedes and Schiattarella's Lumina had the upper hand on the Audi RS 5 driver. Dionisio eventually also had to let Max Mugelli's BMW by but, in addition to another in the gentleman-drivers ranking, he also nipped team mate David Stancheris for fifth place in a dash to the finish line. The Bergamo-based driver, who had been forced to retire in race one due to a gearbox problem, had taken off from the bottom of the grid in the sixth row, but came back in his usual fancy driving style. Eighth in the ranks in Tuscany and third among Audi drivers was Tomas Kostka: only hours removed from grabbing the series lead, level on points with race one winner Baldan, the Czech was put on the gravel on the first lap after a last-corner clash with Leonardo Baccarelli's Mercedes, relegating him to the back of the queue with a car whose flat bottom had been ripped off and the front end was ailing. His race two P8 translats into the Czech tumbling down twelve points adrift of Baldan. Kostka is two stones ahead of race two winner Mercatali, who in turn lies eleven points ahead of Stancheris and Sini, who are level points.
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Photo credit: Audi Sport Italia
