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Changeable weather and light rain created very difficult conditions for all drivers at the start of Race 1 of the TCR Eastern Europe Championship at Autodrom Most. The driver who coped best with the challenging surface was Martin Kadlečík from Aditis Racing, who crossed the finish line first in his Audi RS3 TCR.

Adam Kout from Hyundai Janík Motorport and Martin Kadlečík started from the front row, with Bartosz Groszek and Giacomo Ghermandi lining up on row two. However, just minutes before the formation lap, a light rain shower complicated the situation for the entire field. The race was declared wet, but all drivers remained on slick tyres, as the rain wasn’t heavy enough to require wets. Nevertheless, the track surface was extremely slippery.

Kout had a poor start, allowing Kadlečík and his teammate Groszek to take over first and second. Kout slipped to third, while Ghermandi from MM Motorsport held fourth.

On the second lap, Groszek attempted to take the lead but was unsuccessful. At the same time, Ghermandi passed Kout for third. Ghermandi, clearly faster than Groszek in the slippery conditions, attempted an overtake into the first chicane but outbraked himself and ran straight through. He gave the position back to Groszek to avoid gaining an unfair advantage.

Moments later, however, Ghermandi launched another attack, but there was a contact between him and Groszek and the Polish driver dropped down to sixth place.

Kout followed closely behind Ghermandi, with Čížek in fourth, Zbožínek fifth and Groszek sixth for a while before he retired the car.

With ten minutes remaining, the rain stopped and the track began to dry. Kadlečík maintained a comfortable lead of more than two seconds ahead of Ghermandi, who was under pressure from Kout. Soon, Petr Čížek from Expres Auto Racing joined the battle, and the three began fighting for podium positions.

With two minutes to go, Kout and Ghermandi made contact. The Italian driver slid off the track and became stuck in the gravel trap, forcing him to retire.

Martin Kadlečík went on to win Saturday’s race at Autodrom Most. Kout crossed the line second, followed by another strong home performance from Petr Čížek, who finished third. However Kout recevied 10 seconds penalty for incident with Ghermandi and dropped to fourth place behind eventually second Čížek and third Jiří Zbožínek from Janík Motorsport.

Ivars Vallers from LV Racing rounded out the top five. Auto Klub Dubrovnik driver Žarko Knego finished sixth, followed by returning driver Vít Smejkal in seventh, debutant Radoslav Obrtal secured eighth, both from Expres Auto Racing.

TCR Eastern Europe – race 1

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