Filip Sandström won the opening race of the Clio Cup season. The Carpek Service driver finished in 1st place ahead of his teammate Erik Bertilsson and Miha Primožič.
The new season started extremely well for the Carpek Service team. While its last year’s champion Tomáš Pekař moved to the TCR Eastern Europe series, the team has found a new dominant force for the Clio Cup championship. This time it is Filip Sandström. The Swedish driver first took a pole position and then led from start to finish, to take the perfect result.
But the Carpek Service could celebrate even more, as Sandström was followed by his teammate, another Swedish rookie, Erik Bertilsson in 2nd place. That gave the team a double. They were joined on the podium by Miha Primožič in 3rd place.
Sandi Jeram finished in 4th position ahead of Richard Meixner, Mark Mramor, Valter Nežić, Igor Tomljanović, Vedran Šipoš and Ivan Gustin rounded up the TOP 10. Mramor, who finished in 6th place, had a pretty eventful race. The Slovenian driver, who is racing with ESET Race Star support, struggled to make it from the grid at the beginning of the formation lap, and he had to start from the pits. Yet, he was able to finish in the TOP 10.
Also, Yasmeen Koloc, Zoran Poglajen and Levente Losonczy had some struggles. First, Koloc lost some time at the start due to a problem. She finished in 11th place. Poglajen and Losonczy did not finish. And it was the worst for Losonczy, who had to retire from 3rd position. He lost control in the first turn and then was hit by a car from a different category. This accident also brought out a safety car and later even organisers even had to use a red flag to stop the race for a while.