Front row men Thomas Neubauer (Charles Pozzi-Courage) and Eliseo Donno (CDP-Best Lap) were eliminated immediately after the start at the Tamburello as the Italian tried to over-optimistically outbreak his French rival, ending up beached in the gravel.
When the race got underway again eight minutes later, the road was clear for Pin to power ahead of Nurmi and she never put a foot wrong until the chequered flag, taking the win by four seconds over the young Finn.
Belgian John Wartique (FML-D2P) remained in third place from start to finish, clinching second place in the championship over Nurmi by a good margin, with one race remaining.
Ex-F1 driver Adrian Sutil (Gohm Motorsport), who had never raced at Imola, eased into the action with a convincing fourth place, finishing a good 20 seconds ahead of the trio battling for fifth place, Max Mugelli (CDP-Eureka Competition), Nobuhiro Imada and Yudai Uchida (both Rosso Scuderia). The two Japanese drivers had a great scrap for honours in the Trofeo Pirelli Asia Pacific, with the win going to the former.
Eighth place went to Nicolò Rosi (Kessel Racing), who inherited his second win of the season in the Trofeo Pirelli AM category, after Alessandro Cozzi (Formula Racing) was penalized 10 seconds for causing a collision. Claus Zibrandtsen (Formula Racing) and Arno Dalhlmeyer (Scuderia Niki-Iron Lynx) wrapped up the top 10 positions.
There was a terrific battle for fifth between Christian Brunsborg (Formula Racing), Marco Pulcini (Al Tayer Motors) and 2022 champion Ange Barde (Cote d’Azur Cannes), which came to an end when the Frenchman crashed into the back of Pulcini ahead of him at the Rivazza, but sending them both into the gravel and continuing on his way, before being called in for a drive-through.
In the Coppa Shell Asia Pacific category, racing together with the Trofeo, the win went to Kanji Yagura (Cornes Osaka), who after pole this morning, managed to reduce the gap in the standings to leader Kazuyuki Yamaguchi (Cornes Osaka), second today, while in the Coppa Shell AM Asia Pacific Baby Kei (Cornes Osaka) scored his third win in a row after the double at Mugello.
FERRARI CHALLENGE RESULTS - Imola: Race 1 Trofeo Pirelli EU-APAC
