Felice Jelmini has claimed his first victory in the TCR Europe series, after making his debut five years ago, with an inspired strategy as the only driver in the field to start the race on a full set of wet tyres in a race of changing conditions throughout.

Starting from outside of the top ten, Jelmini opted for what seemed like a daring strategy at the time, opting for full wets when the condition of the track was damp with light rain showers, the majority of the field opted for just wet tyres on the rear and slicks on the front, or some outliers daring to go with full slicks.

Pole-sitter Felipe Fernández was one of those to start with full slick tyres, and held the lead at the start, while ALM Honda driver Ruben Volt overtook Jimmy Clairet’s Audi at Turn 1. It was clear full wets were the right tyre for the starting conditions of the race, with Jelmini already up to third by the end of the first lap, and challenging Volt for second.

Volt and Jelmini then drafted past Fernandez at Turn 2 on the second lap, with Jelmini then heading up the back straight alongside Volt fighting for the lead, before running a little deep into Turn 6, where he was hit in the side by Fernández’s Honda. Jelmini barely lost any time, and immediately charged past Volt for the lead, and began building a gap.

Marco Butti was on the move, passing Jimmy Clairet’s Audi on lap three at the final corner, before quickly going on to pass Fernández’s Honda, who was the only driver to stay out on slick tyres, with all the others who made the same call coming in to change to wets and copy Jelmini’s set-up.

Butti moved up to second place on lap five, passing Volt at the final corner, before the rain came back in full force on lap eight, and caught many drivers out, with first Volt hitting the conditions and running wide as did Jimmy Clairet, allowing yesterday’s race winner Max Hart past the pair of them, just as Nicolas Taylor and Felipe Fernández both crashed out at Turn 12.

With cars now going off the circuit in all areas, the safety car was called, and with only five minutes left there was no time to recover the damaged cars and restart the race, leaving Jelmini to take a comfortable win.

Butti was set to the cross the line second, but the conditions were so difficult that the Honda driver spun off on the final lap behind the safety car and fell to the last car on the lead lap, promoting Max Hart to second place, and with Clairet grabbing third on the podium.

Julien Briché, who was last at the end of the first lap after coming into the pits to change to full wet tyres on the formation lap, picked up his best result of the season with fourth, while Eric Gené finished fifth and was the leading driver in the Youth Best Trophy category after Butti’s final lap drama.

For the second race in a row, guest driver Mikael Karlsson won the Diamond Trophy, after pitting in the race early on and also switching to full wet tyres, finishing tenth overall.

The next race of the TCR Europe series takes place at Misano on 27-29 June.