SP Compétition’s Giovanni Scamardi had a great chance to secure not only his first podium, but a victory in front of a home crowd at Circuit Zolder in Belgium, but at half distance after soaring into the lead at the start, the CUPRA driver fell behind the Honda of Levente Losonczy. Scamardi’s race soon ended when he was unfortunately taken out following a misjudgement by the rival CUPRA of Viktor Davidovski at Turn 12.

After showing good pace on Saturday, when he pulled away from 2022 champion Franco Girolami after rejoining just ahead of him following a pit stop for a new tyre, he produced the same pace in Race 1, darting past the two Hondas of Losonczy and Felipe Fernández to lead the race, before his performance began to dip on lap six.

“The pace was there, but then on my last lap I had a brake problem, which is why I lost the lead,” said Scamarid. “Then Davidovski put me out and broke the car and the race was finished for me.

“I ended up hitting Franco (Girolami) because of this issue, as all my brakes locked up”, he explained, referring to the contact with the Argentinian at the chicane just before his retirement.

“It was my first time up the front, the pace was there as no one was catching me, so it’s a shame about the brakes, but what’s happened has happened. We will take what we can take, we are happy the pace was there, but I’d prefer to have the result.”

A despondent Davidovski was upset over his part in the incident which took out Scamardi. The Macedonian driver was given a reprimand for the error, which he also blamed on both brakes and an error on his part, losing grip in the slippery conditions.