Andrea Antonelli wins the Winter Cup becoming the king of winter at the South Garda. The young Italian Rokker has fought strong rivals, from all over the world, in the first seasonal challenge, run in changing weather conditions.

In the qualifying heats the Polish Piotr Protasiewicz destroyed the rivalry, confirming as one of the strongest drivers on the fastest lap. Already during the qualifying, valiant drivers showed off and it was soon clear that the claimants to the victory would have been Andrea Antonelli (Italy), the Italy Rok champion Karol Pasiewicz (Poland), the Italians Hayden Lupifieri, Edoardo Trifone and the same author of the pole.
The long and fascinating sequence of heats was run with all kinds of weather conditions and with dry, wet and semi-dry asphalt, forcing drivers to use slick and rain tires. In these conditions the young Mini Rokkers have been completely busy, exalting and offering a show of overtakings.
The first two qualified drivers, Protasiewicz and Antonelli, confirmed to be at the top also at the end of the qualifying heats with the Polish who won all three heats while the trainee of Mercedes, Antonelli, won two.
Although not winning, but leading the heats and gaining important positions were Cristian Bertuca (Italy), Dmitry Matveev (Russia), Alexandru Iancu (Romania) and Edoardo Trifone (Italy).
The final starting grid was defined after the dispute of the two Super Heats. That is to say two longer heats (10 laps) and reserved for the best sixty-eight, in which a greater number of penalties have been assigned.
The Super Heats were run on the wet track and saw once more the two champions, Protasiewicz and Antonelli, excelling.
The final start reserved a surprise with Bertuca, who overtook the two drivers of the first row and took the lead. Bertuca led the race authoritatively for nine out of twelve laps, keeping a very lively group made up of of Trifone, Pasiewicz and Antonelli under control.
For the poleman Protasiewicz, every victory ambition vanished in the initial stages, due to an initial race phase not so brilliant.
Two laps from the end, Antonelli scored the knockout, overtaking Pasiewicz and Bertuca in one lap, leaving no room for rivals to attempt a counter attack.
Other than a super Antonelli and his insidious rivals, Pasiewicz and Bertuca, it is worth mentioning the race of David Marconato, who finished fourth. Spectacular was also the run-up performed by Lupifieri that in a race full of overtaking has climbed from twenty-fourth to ninth.

RESULTS

Photo: OTK M&C