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Mugello Auto GP: Kevin Giovesi claims maiden victory

Kevin Giovesi claimed his maiden Auto GP victory in race two at Mugello

The Formula 3 European Open Copa class champion has starred in Auto GP since abandoning his GP2 programme last month and his win was his fourth podium in as many starts.

NEWS UPDATE: Giovesi penalised, Karthikeyan given win

Second on Saturday translated to seventh on race two's reversed grid. But the Ghinzani racer executed a superb start to steal the lead on the exit of the first corner.

Yoshitaka Kuroda in second was unable to match the leader's pace, allowing Giovesi to stage a break while Super Nova pairing Narain Karthikeyan and Vittorio Ghirelli were bottled up behind the Japanese racer.

Karthikeyan grabbed second by braving the outside around Kuroda at the San Donato bend at the start of lap two. Ghirelli, perhaps inspired, produced a copycat pass for third on the following tour.

The leaders then held station until the chequered flag.

Karthikeyan demonstrated marginally superior pace to reduce a 2.2-second deficit to just half a second at the finish.

But the former Formula 1 driver reported losing front-end bite whenever he got within striking distance of Giovesi, and was unable to stage a passing attempt.

After suffering from an intermittent injector problem in race one, endeding a possible podium challenge, Ghirelli claimed a distant third - some 10s adrift of the winner.

Promoted to the championship lead after inheriting victory in race one, Sergio Campana ran fifth, behind Tamas Pal Kiss, in the early laps, before a severe delay at his pitstop.

Campana's title rival Kimiya Sato had followed him in close proximity before an early mandatory tyre change on lap six.

Sato took advantage of Campana's misfortune to finish fourth, just 0.6s clear of Zele Racing's Kiss.

Saturday's on-the-road victor Meindert van Buuren produced a solid performance from 10th on the grid to complete the top six.

The second Zele entry of Auto GP debutant Christian Klien made a respectable getaway from pole, but appeared to lose ground changing through the gears and was back in the midfield and out of podium contention at the completion of the opening lap.

The race proved relatively incident free compared to Saturday's fraught opener, but Giovesi's Ghinzani team-mate Robert Visoiu had a heavy crash on the last lap. The Romanian walked away from his car unaided.

NEWS UPDATE: Giovesi penalised, Karthikeyan given win

Results - 16 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team          Time/Gap
 1.  Kevin Giovesi        Ghinzani    26m24.218s
 2.  Narain Karthikeyan   Super Nova     +0.529s
 3.  Vittorio Ghirelli    Super Nova    +10.885s
 4.  Kimiya Sato          Euronova      +16.448s
 5.  Tamas Pal Kiss       Zele          +17.154s
 6.  Meindert van Buuren  Manor MP      +27.805s
 7.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP      +28.232s
 8.  Yoshitaka Kuroda     Euronova      +29.768s
 9.  Christian Klien      Zele          +37.400s
10.  Andrea Roda          Virtuosi      +38.241s
11.  Maxim Snegirev       Virtuosi      +42.706s
12.  Sergio Campana       Ibiza         +42.927s
13.  Francesco Dracone    Ibiza         +47.935s
14.  Michele La Rosa      MLR 71        +59.569s

Retirements:

     Robert Visoiu        Ghinzani       15 laps

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