Pierre-Yves Corthals won the first race at Jerez de la Frontera at the wheel of his DG Sport Compétition Opel Astra. The Belgian driver managed to overtake Francisco Mora’s Veloso Motorsport SEAT León four laps before the end of the race, when his Portuguese rival was slowed down by a combination of brake problems and tyre-wear.
Mora had taken the lead starting from the pole position, while Corthals climbed to second on the opening lap, overtaking the SEAT León of Rafael Lobato.
In the first part of the race Corthals was closely chasing Mora, while Lobato defended his third place from the attacks of Antti Buri (LMS Racing SEAT León). Manuel Gião (Team Novadriver Volkswagen Golf) was following in fifth position, well ahead of José Rodrigues (Gen Motorsport Honda Civic) who was fighting with Nuno Batista (Veloso Motorsport SEAT León) and Gustavo Moura (Speedy Motorsport SEAT León).
In the second half of the race, Corthals was seriously threatening Mora’s leadership and eventually managed to overtake him on lap 9. Soon afterwards, Mora’s pace faded and he salvaged the second position beating Lobato by only six tenths of a second.
The second race will start at 16:30 local time.