Kimiya Sato went on to win Race 1 at the Hungaroring in the third round of the 2013 Auto GP. The Japanese Euronova Racing driver took-off from the third place on the grid but took an early lead at the first corner to edge Vittorio Ghirelli (Super Nova International) and Tamas Pal Kiss (MLR71). The Italian, who had lost second place to the home hero, recovered the position with a clever line at the first braking. On lap 2, Ghirelli passed Sato back but his potentially winning run suddenly came to an halt when he was slowed down by a left rear issue in the pits. He eventually wounded up in second after having lost all the advantage he had built up to the 15th lap.

Sato is at his second Auto GP victory after winning a wet Race 2 at Monza. On the other hand, Ghirelli repeated the second-place finish scored last month in Morocco. Sergio Campana for Ibiza Racing Team ended up in third place following to a great recovery drive from 5th on the grid. It was a good rebound for him after having to retire in Race 2 at Marrakech (he won Race 1). Sato is now standing as the championship leader with 91 points, 14 more by Campana (77), while Ghirelli stands in third with 62 points.

Riccardo Agostini (MP Motorsport) ended up in 4th place. Thanks to an early pit-stop, he was able to recover one spot on Pal Kiss, who rounded out the top-5 in a positive Auto GP debut. Sixth and Seventh place went to two more MP Motorsport men, Meindert van Buuren and Daniel De Jong, while former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan (Zele Racing) scored 8th and was awarded the pole for Race 2 thanks to the reverse top-8 format.

Virtuosi UK cruised to two more podium finishes with Como-based Andrea Roda and Russian Max Snegirev, while a contact between Luciano Bacheta (Zele Racing) and Robert Visoiu (Ghinzani Motorsport) put both of them out of contention during the penultimate lap. The Italian squad also turned some heads as they decided to replace Visoiu's front wheels (teams usually replace the rear ones) during the pit-stop.

Kimiya Sato:

“It's been a very tight race because we did not have the best race pace. We missed a little bit of grip and the tires were heating too quickly. We've been lucky not to have had some problems and this win rewards the whole team for the great job done”.

Vittorio Ghirelli:

“We've been the fastest all-weekend long but it wasn't enough. The start hasn't been good but I was abled to recover the lead and I had a good pace. We went for a late pit-stop with just a few laps to go but unfortunately we encountered a left rear issue and we lost the advantage gathered on-track”.

Sergio Campana:

“We improved our position and went onto the podium as we found some new solutions that enabled us to be competitive again in terms of the race pace. I'm happy with what we achieved so far”.

All Photos Auto GP.