Tambay wins to set up four-way championship fight in season finale
The Auto GP title fight will go down to the wire in the final race of the season after Adrien Tambay soaked up some severe Luca Filippi pressure to win the feature race at Mugello this afternoon
Tambay's win gives him a tiny chance of winning the championship from fourth on the points table - but he'll need to win with fastest lap in order to do so. And even if he manages that from eighth on the reversed grid, he'll still need disasters to hit all three of the drivers ahead of him.
Those three drivers are Ombra's series leader Kevin Ceccon (fourth in today's race), Supernova's Filippi (nine points behind Ceccon) and DAMS driver Sergei Afanasiev (sixth today and 11 points behind Ceccon).
Tambay led today's race from start to finish, but had to withstand a menacing-looking Filippi all the way. He only just kept ahead of the veteran after his mid-race pitstop, and had to work hard on cold tyres to keep in front.
The Frenchman survived that vulnerable out-lap however and then shut the dangerous Filippi out for the rest of the race.
Fabio Onidi was a distant third, only just clear of Ceccon. Pitstops aside, Onidi also held that position from the start of the race. He was helped in part by the fact that the man ahead, second-row starter Adam Carroll, was wheeled off the grid after he stalled at the abortive first start.
Carroll showed great pace after starting from the pitlane, however, and did pick up the fastest lap on his way to eighth. He will start race two in pole and looks a good bet for victory in the season finale.
Results - 16 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Adrien Tambay Campos 26m22.153s 2. Luca Filippi Super Nova + 0.635s 3. Fabio Onidi Lazarus + 8.549s 4. Kevin Ceccon Ombra + 9.502s 5. Rio Haryanto DAMS + 12.223s 6. Sergei Afanasiev DAMS + 14.184s 7. Fabrizio Crestani Lazarus + 17.045s 8. Adam Carroll Campos + 17.697s 9. Pasquale di Sabatino TP + 31.454s 10. Samuele Buttarelli TP + 33.752s 11. Giovanni Venturini Durango + 37.555s 12. Michele la Rosa Ombra + 1 lap Retirements: Giuseppe Cipriani Durango 11 laps Francesco Dracone Emmebi 9 laps
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