At the start, Rosso took the lead and immediately began to open a gap, while Ugran attacked and overtook Minì. Further back Reynos too too big a risk in the early corners and was out of the race. That meant that at the end of lap 1 the order was Rosso, from Ugran, Minì, Fornaroli and Gnos.

While Rosso vanished up the road, Dino Beganovic (PREMA Powerteam) made contact with the innocent bystander Jonny Edgar (Van Amersfoort Racing), putting him out of the race too.

Meanwhile the Jac Crawford attacked Gnos, but the American made a mistake and went off the track, only to return several positions back. Gabriel Bortoleto (PREMA Powerteam) was putting in an excellent drive, attacking and overtaking Axel Gnos (G4 Racing). Subsequently Beganovic also attacked Gnos who had a damaged front wing, while Francesco Pizzi (Van Amersfoort Racing) was in the midst of a recovery drive and had made it back up to 9th place, behind Sebastian Montoya (PREMA Powerteam). The latter then clashed with Gnos and the two spun out.

Leonardo Fornaroli (Iron Lynx) was another who impressed, lapping very rapildy and getting very close to Minì who was now in difficulties, while behind him a masterful Bortoleto attacked Fornaroli and passed him to claim 3rd place having started from 12th; it was a quite incredible performance and he wasn’t done yet. Shortly afterwards he snatched 2nd from Ugran and he was soon just 6 seconds adrift of Rosso.

Bortoleto then hammered home a series of fastest laps, only to have Rosso respond in kind. Minì, on the other hand, was in crisis mode, under attack from Fornaroli, who, however, failed to get the better of the Sicilian.

Rosso came home to win, with Bortoleto 2nd, Ugran in 3rd, Minì 4th, then Fornaroli and Beganovic. The latter was penalized 10 secondsas a result of contact with Edgar, but it made no difference to the final standings.

Tomorrow race 2 will start at 11.40 local time, while race 3 will start at 16.40. This time, however, Bortoleto will start from pole position in both races and it will be hard, in similar conditions, to beat him.