Matteo Roccadelli has won race-1 of Campionato Italiano Sport Prototipi here in Monza: after starting from pole position, the driver from Vercelli dominated the first race of the weekend despite a tricky start and a tough safety car restart that put the BHK Motorsport driver to the test. However, Roccadelli kept his cool throughout the race, showing great pace and winning his first race of the season by more than 13 seconds over second-place finisher Jesse Menczer; the Brit had a great showing and took advantage of everything that happened during the race to cross the start-finish line in second. Davide Uboldi finished third just in front of championship leader Emil Hellberg, with the Italian ahead by only 59 milliseconds. The race was unfortunately cut short, as the session got red-flagged on the last lap because of Stefano Attianese’s car, which came to a halt on the run down towards Ascari. 

Roccadelli was able to win an emotion-filled race, with many battles that grabbed the attention of the fans who came to see the action on the grandstands here in Monza. The turning point in the fight for the podium happened on lap three, when the safety car came out on track and neutralized the race: Linus Hellberg spun entering the first Lesmo corner, with his brother Emil and Danny Molinaro coming together while trying to avoid the car in front of them. Championship leader Emil was the only one who managed to make it out in one piece, as the two other drivers involved were forced to retire. It was Davide Acosta Molina who took advantage of the situation, finishing fifth and ahead of Pietro Ferri. India’s Surineni Chetan ended his first race of the season in seventh, after fighting long and hard for the podium in the middle part of the race before cutting the chicane in turn 1 and losing precious time in the process. Eighth was Giovanni Mazza, who finished the race ahead of Mariano Maglioccola and Sonia Roussel, as the French driver rounded off the top 10. 

The Campionato Italiano Sport Prototipi will be back out on track on Sunday, with race-2 scheduled to go ahead at 11:00 AM. The race will be live streamed on ACI Sport TV, channel 228 on Sky, and on its social media platforms (Facebook and YouTube).