Marco Butti secured his first podium of the season in a fast-paced first race at Spa-Francorchamps, with the damp conditions late in the race favouring the set-up on Butti’s Monlau Motorsport CUPRA Leon VZ TCR.

The Italian who was a race winner at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit a year ago, powered through to finish third, one place up from where he qualified, passing new points leader Mike Halder on the final lap to join team-mate Viktor Andersson on the podium, Butti’s first since moving to the Spanish team this season.

“I had a really bad start, but after the rain came that helped me to join the top three,” said Butti. “It was a bit disappointing if I’d only be P4, but I had really great pace through Eau Rouge, and so I had to try something a bit crazy on the last lap of the race to be on the podium, and I think we achieved a really great move on Mike Halder.”

Butti’s results from the weekend have also rewarded the Italian with his best-ever position in the Kumho TCR World Ranking, the global scoring index for all TCR drivers. Based on his results from last year and this year, Butti is now placed sixth, the highest of the TCR Europe contingent in the ranking, and is amidst many of the frontrunners from the Kumho FIA TCR World Tour.