Kevin Giacon claimed his second victory of the season in TCR Italy at the wheel of his Tecnodom Opel Astra. The first race of the season’s penultimate event at Vallelunga provided plenty of action as the drivers were fighting for the positions.
Nicola Baldan (PitLane Competizioni SEAT León) finished in third position and jumped back on top of the championship standings as the previous leader, Eric Scalvini (MM Motorsport Honda Civic) was hit by a penalty.
At the start, pole sitter Davide Nardilli (MM Motorsport Honda) squeezed among Baldan’s SEAT and Massimiliano Mugelli’s Audi to take the lead. During the opening lap Giacon overtook Baldan and Mugelli in one move on the outside line at the Cimini bend. Behind, Scalvini – who had started from the last position due to an engine failure in Qualifying – hit Alessandro Thellung’s SEAT, sending it into a spin.
The battle for the first position raged between Nardilli, Giacon, Baldan, Mugelli and Carlotta Fedeli (PitLane Audi). On lap 5, Giacon overtook Baldan for second and began to put pressure on the leader.
On lap 12, Giacon dived inside Nardilli at the Roma bend; they clashed and Giacon took the lead. Baldan benefited from the situation and climbed to second ahead of Nardilli who was chased by Mugelli and Fedeli.
On lap 14, Mugelli and Fedeli had a tough fight, they swapped positions and paints until Mugelli eventually was able to retake the fourth position. During the same lap, Nardilli retook second from Baldan.
In the final part of the race, Scalvini was able to overtake Vincenzo Montalbano, Alberto Viberti and finally Fedeli, crossing the line in fifth position. However he received a 10-second penalty for the incident with Thellung and was dropped to ninth.

Baldan leads the standings by 10 points ahead of Scalvini; Race 2 will kick off tomorrow at 14:45 local time.