Fabrizio Gobbi, in only his sixth race in GPVWC, won the Canadian round of the Superleague season.
Gobbi started the race from pole position, with championship leader Adam Maguire joining him on the front row.
Maguire got the better start and took the lead of the race under braking for the first corner.
On lap eight Gobbi overtook Maguire on the run to the final chicane, and in the remaining 62 laps Maguire was never able to return the favour.
Jernej Simoncic’s laptimes in the early stages of the race weren’t up to scratch with the top two, but a lower wing setting meant Stephane Rouault wasn’t able to find a way past Simoncic for third place.
Simoncic soon placed himself into victory contention, by pitting 10 laps after Maguire and seven laps after Gobbi, meaning he was able to complete a one-stop strategy on the medium tyres.
Running further on the soft tyres and then pitting for mediums whilst most of the other front runners fitted hards, meant Simoncic left the pits comfortably in front of Rouault and only 3.5 seconds behind race leader Gobbi.
However his running in the race came to a dramatic end as he crashed into the wall on the right side of the back straight, his car spinning and rolling down the straight before coming to a stop.
Simoncic’s retirement handed the final podium position to Jannick Bock, who passed Rouault for third – having, like Simoncic, ran the soft tyres for longer than most in order to fit the medium compound tyres in the pits.
A late overtake by Gobbi’s team-mate Giuseppe Ragusa on Dennis Jordan meant both Abruzzi Esports cars finished inside the top five.
Real-world touring car ace Agustin Canapino returned to GPVWC this race and represented the Ghostspeed Racing Team.
However he failed to make the finish after a collision with Luke Maguire on the run down to Turn 8 on the opening lap.
Maguire hit the wall underneath the bridge before the chicane, ricocheting his car into Canapino’s and causing massive damage to both cars.
The race results mean a third of the way into the season Abruzzi Esports is fifth in the Superleague constructors’ championship after its drivers finished first and fifth.
“I’m very proud of both drivers to both be in the top five,” said Abruzzi Esports team principal Mike Pitman after the Montreal race.
“Giuseppe Ragusa probably could’ve done even better, he was on Jordan’s back wing the whole event.
“I’m not taking any credit for this at all, this is purely down to those fantastic in the team that work behind the scenes at Abruzzi Esports.
“The guys have done me so proud, they have had speed at other tracks and just luck has not been on their side, but they really were on it here.”
Adam Maguire still heads the GPVWC drivers’ championship and is the only driver with a triple-digit points count, and his team Edonis Engineering also leads the constructors’ championship.
