Carlotta Fedeli continued her dominant season in the Italian Touring Cup at Misano, claiming her third win in the TCR DSG class in just as many rounds. With an overall podium, Fedeli now is starting to keep an eye on the overall standings as well.
Italian driver Carlotta Fedeli was one of the protagonists of the TCR DSG Italy 2019 season, where she fought for the title as she shared a Cupra TCR with Cosimo Barberini.
The driver from Rome then entered selected races in the 2020 TCR Italy series, moving to the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR of RC Motorsport.
In 2021, Fedeli finally found another full-time program: always supported by RC Motorsport, the 29-year old moved to the 'Coppa Italia Turismo' by Peroni Promotion, behind the wheel of a Audi RS3 LMS in the TCR DSG class - which features TCR cars specially equipped with a Direct-Shift Gearbox.
As the series headed to Misano for its third round of the six scheduled double-headers. 90 days ago, Fedeli was able to clinch the third place overall in Imola - out of 37 cars on track - and secured victory in the DSG category. It was her second win of the season, adding up to the inaugural round at Mugello.
With four podiums out of four races, Carlotta Fedeli entered the third round at Misano as the championship leader in the DSG category, 2 points ahead of her closest rival Alberto Rodio.
"I will try to maintain the lead of the standings in TCR DSG at Misano", she said before the race meeting. "But now I am also starting to look at the overall standings. In the main division I am in third place, 16 points behind the leader, and we still have eight races to go", she added.
On the Italian riviera, Fedeli was again on top of her game and confirmed herself as one of the leading contenders in DSG-equipped touring cars. Having started from sixth overall on Saturday - and first in class - Fedeli was third overall and took another dominant class victory in the first 25-minute race, as she also finished ahead of 12 first-division entries.
Carlotta was able to gain two positions and constantly lapped on par with the faster TCR cars with sequential gearbox.
"I had a good pace, but I initially tried not to push too much, because my target was to manage the DSG-class leadership", explained Fedeli. "The team then told me that Marco Butti, who was ahead of me at that point, had been handed a 5-second time penalty."
"At that point I started to push again and I caught up with him, in order to secure third place overall" - she added.
In the second race, contested on Sunday afternoon, Fedeli started again from the third row of the grid. This time, though, she reported a gearbox issue that would ultimately cost her her sixth class podium in a row. She finished seventh overall and fourth among the DSG entries - still bagging crucial points for the championship.
Mauro Guastamacchia, overall points' leader, came home with a first and a second place, while Marco Butti was able to edge the former for Race 2 victory.
As the Touring Car Cup now enters its second half of the season, the Misano round allowed Carlotta Fedeli to further extend her championship lead. The next round will be her home race at Vallelunga, approximately in a month's time.