Christjohannes Schreiber scored a maiden victory in the FIA European Touring Car Cup at Monza today as ETCC 2017 began with two action-packed races on its return to the legendary venue.

Schreiber, driving a Rikli Motorsport Honda Civic, won Race 1 on the road thanks to a well-judged, final-lap pass on team-mate Peter Rikli on the outside entering the first chicane, only to be handed a five-second penalty for not lining up in his starting position correctly. With Rikli penalised for the same offence, Petr Fulín inherited top spot in his Křenek Motorsport SEAT. But such was their rapid pace, Schreiber and Rikli were still able to hold on to second and third respectively with Igor Stefanovski and Norbert Nagy next up.

Plamen Kralev was in the fight for fourth but was handed a drive-through penalty for performing a practice start on the grid. ETCC rookie Zsolt David Szabo, who like team-mate Nagy stalled leaving the line, fought back to sixth as Andreas Pfister, Mladen Lalušić, Fábio Mota and Kralev completed the top 10.

Despite lining-up sixth for the reverse-grid second race, Rikli was leading by the first turn. However, his progress through the order wasn’t within the track limits and he duly received a 10-second penalty, leaving Schreiber, who had trailed him throughout the race, to celebrate the first win of his ETCC career, a result that hands the Swiss the title lead by three points over Rikli and Fulín, who finished second and third respectively with Fulín receiving a five-second penalty for a track limits breach of his own.

Nagy and Stefanovski were fourth and fifth respectively. Kralev, from Bulgaria, became the first driver in an Audi RS3 LMS to score ETCC points in sixth as Pfister and Mota rounded out the scorers. German Pfister reported struggling for straight-line speed with his SEAT’s older-specification gearbox, while Mota (Portugal) was delayed when he was ordered to serve a drive-through penalty for a track limits breach. Mladen Lalušić started the reverse-grid second race on pole but retired following contact on the opening lap. Szabo was also unable to go the distance due to a technical issue.

RACE WINNER QUOTES:
Race 1 (Petr Fulín): “I am happy about the result from the first race but I prefer for penalties not to decide races so it was not a good weekend. I did my best in Race 2 but it wasn’t enough. Every time you push but there’s no chance against the Hondas.”

Race 2 (Christjohannes Schreiber): “Right now I am just happy. Of course after Race 1 I was very frustrated, because I came out of the car and thought we won the ETCC, and then my brother told me I got a time penalty, but I’m still second. I won’t complain about that. There is no strategy or number one status in the team so I could fight with Peter [Rikli] on the track but without shooting each other off and that’s how we behaved.”