Renault Sport Trophy: Pizzitola takes Elite title in thriller finale

Andrea Pizzitola (ART Junior Team) won the championship title in Elite category of Renault Sport Trophy after thrilling final race today at Jerez. Pizzitola finished the race on second place, behind Indy Dontje (ART Junior Team), but later received 25 seconds penalty because of crossing the line at the restart. That dropped Pizzitola to third place, behind Christian Klien (Zele Racing). Pizzitola’s main rival Steijn Schothorst (Equipe Verschuur) finished fifth and lost the title for just two points.

Andrea Pizzitola won the race in which he had an early incident with Nicky Pastorelli (V8 Racing), which caused Safety car intervention. During the Safety car period, leader David Fumanelli, José Manuel Perez Aicart (Monlau Competicion), Nelson Panciatici (Monlau Competicion), Luciano Bacheta (Oregon Team) and Bas Schothorst (Zele Racing) switched to rain tires, and so did Steijn Schothorst (Equipe Verschuur) on the following lap.

When the action resumed, Indy Dontje led and his teammate Andrea Pizzitola quickly moved up to second place. Despite the penalty he took the crown. With this championship title Pizzitola won the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to demonstrate his skills during the selection tests with the factory Nismo team in Super GT.

Earlier today the Endurance and Prestige champion Dario Capitanio (Oregon Team) ended his victorious campaign with his third consecutive win in Prestige Sprint ahead of Christof von Grünigen (Zele Racing) and Richard Gonda (ART Junior Team). The Oregon Team took the team title.