Rossi lands maiden IFM win at Brno
Alexander Rossi scored his first International Formula Master victory in today's reverse grid race at Brno
The 17-year-old American earned a place on the front row of the grid by finishing seventh in yesterday's first race, and quickly took the lead from pole-sitter Nicolas Maulini off the line.
Rossi came under pressure in the early stages of the race from Josef Kral, who made a flying start to climb from sixth on the grid to third. That quickly became second when Maulini spun off at Turn 5 and Kral began to home in on Rossi.
But before Kral could seriously threaten the lead his front wing began flapping and he was shown the black and orange flag. He was losing around a second per lap until he had to retreat to the pits.
Rossi was left seven seconds clear of Vladimir Arabadzhiev and Sergei Afanasiev, who completed the podium.
"I knew that I was on the front row and if I made a good start it was my race to lose," said Rossi. "I made a good start, my best of the season. Josef was closing on me a bit but then he had a problem with his car."
Erik Janis, Kasper Andersen and race one winner Fabio Leimer completed the top six.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alexander Rossi ISR 25m57.064s 2. Vladimir Arabadzhiev JD +7.005 3. Sergei Afanasiev JD +7.266 4. Erik Janis ISR +9.906 5. Kasper Andersen Hitech +10.978 6. Fabio Leimer Jenzer +11.976 7. Alessandro Kouzkin Cram +13.287 8. Dennis Retera AR +36.943 9. Kelvin Snoeks AR +37.843 10. Patrick Reiterer Iris +38.184 11. Simon Trummer Iris +38.430 12. Matteo Davenia Cram +1:13.785 Retirements Josef Kral JD 11 laps Pal Varhaug Jenzer 1 lap Nicolas Maulini Jenzer 0 laps
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments