The Austrian outfit’s top driver Tamas Pal Kiss won his first-ever AutoGP race at the Circuit Paul Ricard Saturday
Kiss, who already led at the season opener in Marrakech before being taken out by Kevin Giovesi last weekend, quickly formed a leading trio with Giovesi and Markus Pommer, which ran away from the field.
“I had the pace already in the beginning, but decided to stay behind Kevin and Markus. Ahead of the pitstop, I told the team that I wanted to attack Giovesi first and then come in,” Tamas explained after the race.
The Zele mechanics managed a perfect tyre change and the Hungarian left the pits just ahead of Pommer, who had pitted earlier. “With the balance I had after the tyre change, I could push constantly and really enjoyed it”, Kiss was delighted.
“Following our mixed emotions in Morocco, this is just what we needed. Tamas did an excellent job, but so did our pit crew”, team boss Michael Zele added.
Thanks to his victory, Kiss moved up to third place in the overall standings on 37 points, 19 points adrift championship leader Kimiya Sato.
Zele Racing teammate Yoshitaka Kuroda further improved his lap times in his comeback event and came eighth in the end, which will put him on pole position for Sunday’s second race, due to the reverse grid regulations.
