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Circuito de Albacete Open Telefonica report

FIA Series Open Telefonica Andrea Belicchi and Franck Montagny won in the Circuit of Albacete in front of a crowd of 25,000 spectators. Montagny, although he took a penalty in the first race, putted an impressive drive in the second one, he won ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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FIA Series Open Telefonica

Andrea Belicchi and Franck Montagny won in the Circuit of Albacete in front of a crowd of 25,000 spectators.

Montagny, although he took a penalty in the first race, putted an impressive drive in the second one, he won and still lead the Series, with Tomas Scheckter second in the overall, only four points behind

Circuito de Albacete, May 13th 2001.- Andrea Belicchi (SITEC Motorsport) and Franck Montagny (Epsilon by Graff) were the winners of races 1 and 2 from the third meeting of the FIA Series Open Telefonica 2001.Both races needed the appearance of the Nissan Safety Car due to the incidents of Borja Garcia (Adrian campos Motorsport), in race 1, and the newcomer Carlos Martin (G-Tec).

The first round (18 laps) was marked by the stop and go imposed to the Frenchman Franck Montagny (23), as they sentenced that the Epsilon by Graf driver moved forward this Single Seater before the Start Procedure.

Photo: Open Telefonica

Andrea Belicchi (SITEC Motorsport), who started from the fourth position, did a splendid performance wich deserved him the first victory of the year. The Italian driver also won on of the races here during the 2000 Seasson. In the second race, starting from the last row of the grid, the italian was able to run up finishing fourth "I want to thank the SITEC Team for the great work they did, I'm so happy with this victory, and for me, the fourth position of the second race looks like a victory either".

It was a perfect start for, Franck Montagny (Epsilon by Graff) starting from the pole position. The stop and go was the sour taste of the week-end, but sweeten moments arrive in the impressive second race, where the team won 7 seconds towards Scheckter, when they pit with Monatgny, overtaking the Southafrican. The team has announced they will Appeal the decission of the stewards.Nevertheless, Montagny lapped the fastest laps in both races: "I'm very dissapointed with the decission of the stewards. The engine's temperature was very high and I have to moove the car a litlle bit. I made a sign to the Stewards. Then I stop the car and I was perfectly OK for the start procedure."

The only driver able to lap 1.22 as Montagny was Tomas Scheckter (Vergani Racing), who achieve two valuable second positions in today's races."We had some trouble with the temperatures today. We even use the extra-set of tyures in tha same grid. Y tried to follow the rithm of Franck but my car was understeering a lot so Y prefer to profit my second position."

The Repsol YPF Meycom perfomed very good and the 20 years-old Victor Ordoñez visited the podium for the very first time. The former Toyota 1.300 c.c. was full of joy: "The team worked like hell to be here and I'm just so glad with my performance. The podium gave me strengh to overtake even Giao in the second race. I'm just so surprised to be able to battle myself with this outstanding gyus" said looking to Scheckter and Montagny in the Official Press Conference. Santiago Porteiro (Vergani Racing) did a great race finishing third in the second race, so Francesco Marzi had two drivers in the Prize Giving Ceremony.The Castellon driver will arrive the next 10 of June at Valencia as the top 10 driver in the overall.

*The results of the second race changed due to the exclusion of Brian Smith (PSN). <pre> Race 1 (18 laps)

1. Andrea Belicchi (SITEC Motorsport) 1.22.816 a 153.840 km/h 2. Tomas Scheckter (Vergani Racing) a 2.823 3. Victor Ordoñez (Repsol YPF Meycom) a 3.179 4. Jordi Nogues (G-TEC) a 9.716 5. Jonnathan Cochet (Venturini Racing) a 18.998 9. Rafael Sarandeses (Adrian Campos Motorsport), 13. Carlos Martin (GTEC)

VR: Franck Montagny (Epsilon by Graff) 1.22.703 (lap 7)

DNF: Leandro Iglesias (PSN Racing), Geoffrey Dellus (Epsilon by Graff), Paulo Alho (Scuderia Famà), Sergi Yborra (Skualo Competicion), Ángel Burgueño (Repsol YPF Meycom), Manuel Giao (Scuderia Famà), Santiago Porteiro (Vergani Racing), Borja Garcia (Adrian Campos Motorsport).

Race 2 (28 laps-pit stop 6/19)

1. Franck Montagny (Epsilon by Graff) 1.22.640 a 154.167 km/h 2. Tomas Scheckter (Vergani Racing) a 11.366 3. Santiago Porteiro (Vergani Racing) a 20.689 4. Andrea Belicchi (SITEC Motorsport) a 21.327 5. Jonnathan Cochet (Venturini Racing) a 39.505 9. Jordi Nogues (G-TEC) a 44.401

VR: Franck Montagny (Epsilon by Graff) 1.22.640 (lap 11)

DNF: Leandro Iglesias (PSN Racing), Matteo Bobbi (Adrian Campos Motorsport), Carlos Martin (G-TEC), Ángel Burgueño (Repsol YPF Meycom), Filippo Zadotti (SITEC Motorsport) y Geoffrey Dellus (Epsilon by Graff).

OVERALL STANDINGS:

1. Franck Montagny, 87 puntos 2. Tomas Scheckter, 83 p. 3. Andrea Belicchi, 69 p. 4. Rafael Sarandeses, 46 p. 5. Jonnathan Cochet, 42 points.

-RPM-

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