In the second round of the Italian Touring Cup at Imola, Carlotta Fedeli took class victory and confirmed her championship lead.
Having switched from the Italian TCR championship to the Peroni Promotion's Coppa Italia Turismo, experienced touring car driver Carlotta Fedeli is one of the top protagonist of the Italian based series, which held its second round of the season last weekend at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
The lady from Rome was protagonist of a successful season-opener at Mugello in April, when she conquered two fifth place finishes at the wheel of the RC Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS. In one of those occasions, her P5 also meant victory in the DSG class and moved her on top of the category standings.
In Imola, Fedeli immediately showed speed early on in the weekend and topped the TCR DSG class time sheets in both free practice sessions – also finishing second overall in the afternoon.
"I'm really satisfied." – she commented. "The track is okay for our Audi and I'm really happy about my car."
"Today there was a lot of wind, but later we had dry conditions and it was ideal to fine-tune the last things going into qualifying and the races" – Fedeli commented after the first day.
Her feelings in the car would later be confirmed correct and the 29-year old driver had a superb performance in Saturday's Race 1: in her #92 RC Motorsport Audi, Fedeli clinched her second class win of the season and finished a strong third in the overall classify.
Due the top-eight inversion rule for the starting grid of Race 2, Carlotta started from the third row, sixth in a strong 37-car grid. She had a good start off the line and advanced to fourth with a remarkable double-move on Alberto Rodio and Steven Giacon in the opening laps.
After a Safety Car interruption – which stopped Fedeli's charge back into to the Top three – Carlotta's Audi had a contact with another competitor at the restart. She lost a position as she battled with Andrea Argenti's Opel Astra and ultimately finished sixth at the chequered flag – behind the recovering duo of Rodio and Giacon.
Her P6 meant another TCR DSG class podium – confirming her leadership in the category's standings.
"Surely I was faster than the other drivers, I'm sorry that I have lost fourth place overall and the second class victory of the weekend." – said Fedeli after the second race, a bit disappointed.
"I had the potential to win, but things turned out differently" – she concluded.
The third round out of the six event-calendar will be contested in Misano on 19-20 June. Carlotta Fedeli will surely try to keep momentum and continue her positive streak of results, both in the overall and class standings, after two very convincing rounds.