Sant’Agata Bolognese/Spa-Francorchamps : BDR Competition by Grupo Prom’s Amaury Bonduel claimed a pair of victories on home soil at Spa-Francorchamps to move to the top of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe Pro standings. The Belgian driver dominated the weekend by taking both pole positions and increased his season win tally to three out of the first four races.
Roee Meyuhas and Renaud Kuppens took Pro-Am victory in race one for Boutsen VDS, while Stéphane Tribaudini and Piergiacomo Randazzo (VS Racing) came out on top in the Am class. Holger Harmsen (GT3 Poland) took the win in the Lamborghini Cup.
Saturday’s second race of the weekend was red flagged due to safety reasons and, with no time to reform the grid, was not restarted. Half points were awarded, with Bonduel declared the winner. Class wins went the way of VS Racing’s Andrea Frassineti and Ignazio Zanon (Pro-Am), Schumacher CLRT’s Stéphan Guérin (Am) and ASR’s Paolo Biglieri and Petar Matić (Lamborghini Cup).
Race 1
Pro
From pole position, Bonduel held the inside line into La Source to maintain his lead with VS Racing’s Mattia Michelotto eventually consolidating his second place after a lively battle with Alberto di Folco (Rexal Villorba Corse) on the run towards Eau Rouge. The leading trio forged an early break from the fourth-placed Paul Levet (Oregon Team) who in turn came under significant pressure in the opening stint from the Iron Lynx entry of Giorgio Amati and Art-Line’s Egor Orudzhev. The pace at the front was intense and Michelotto appeared to have the quicker car in the early stages, twice challenging Bonduel for the lead. A bold overtaking attempt around the outside of the exit of Les Combes failed and Michelotto skated across the fringes of the gravel trap, dropping back. The safety car was then deployed just as the pit window was about to open, which allowed Michelotto’s team-mate Gilles Stadsbader to leapfrog Bonduel, having spent three seconds less in the pits. Quick pit work enabled Di Folco and his team-mate Benedetto Strignano to jump into the lead. A further safety car intervention delivered a last-lap shootout between Strignano and Bonduel, who had got back ahead of Stadsbader for second at the first restart. Bonduel closed in on Strignano and made a spectacular overtake around the outside of Bruxelles to seal the victory. Behind, Stadsbader slipped behind Iron Lynx’s Jesse Salmenautio and was then involved in an incident with Orudzhev and Edgar Maloigne (Iron Lynx) at Double Gauche. Salmenautio and fellow rookie team-mate Amati secured their first podium in third with Target Racing’s Largim Ali and Oliver Söderström vaulting three places on the final lap to earn fourth.
Amaury Bonduel (#28 BDR Competition by Grupo Prom) said: “I’m really happy to win at home in Belgium, it means a lot to me because I had a lot of friends here this weekend. Also, for the championship, it was very important to take the win. Yesterday, the #6 [Michelotto] was super-fast at the start, especially on the straight and it was a hard fight. Then, at the end, I knew I had the speed to overtake the Villorba car [Strignano] and I tried at La Source, but outbraked myself. But then, I tried around the outside at Bruxelles and thankfully it worked.”
Pro-Am
In Pro-Am, Roee Meyuhas and Renaud Kuppens secured a nerve-racking victory for Boutsen VDS despite largely dominating the race from pole position. Tasked with the opening stint, Meyuhas held onto his advantage at the start, settling into a strong ninth place overall, with Mičánek Motorsport’s Štefan Rosina second ahead of the rapid Miloš Pavlović (ASR). Ahead of the pit window, Pavlović made it into second ahead of Rosina, but the #33 car was delayed in the crowded pit-lane, which dropped Pavlović’s team-mate Alessio Ruffini down the order. Having taken over from Rosina, Bronislav Formánek brought the #11 car back into contention in second which left Kuppens under pressure for the final lap. Local driver Kuppens held on to take the win however, as Claude-Yves Gosselin and Joran Leneutre completed the podium for Iron Lynx. Series debutants Nathan Herne and Tim Stender (#88 Leipert Motorsport) made amends for failing to set a time in qualifying to impressively finish just off the podium.
Am
VS Racing stood on the top step of the podium in the Am class as Stéphane Tribaudini and Piergiacomo Randazzo felt both the benefit and the drawback of the safety car to come out on top at the end. Tribaudini maintained his lead off the rolling start but lost his healthy gap over Stéphan Guérin (Schumacher CLRT) when the first neutralisation occurred, after Oregon Team’s Davide Roda beached his car at the exit of Piff Paff. The #66 Huracán stayed in the lead after the mandatory pit-stops but came under threat in the final stages with Target Racing’s Huilin Han looming large in Randazzo’s mirrors. Randazzo kept his cool, though, and came through the final lap with a 2.5-second advantage to claim the win, with Guérin just losing out to Han at the finish. DL Racing’s Diego Locanto and Stefano Pezzucchi were fourth ahead of Marco Gersager’s GM Motorsport entry, while local driver Rodrigue Gillion (CMR) finished sixth.
LB Cup
A late-race incident which brought out the second safety car cost Rexal Villorba Corse’s Donovan and Luciano Privitelio victory in the Lamborghini Cup, a race that the father-and-son pairing had led from pole position until the closing stages. Luciano had taken over the #8 car and kept the lead after the pit-stops, but his race came to an end along with the BDR Competition car of Alfredo Hernandez Ortega and the Am entry of Adrian Lewandowski (ASR) at the exit of the Piff Paff as all three went into the gravel. That allowed GT3 Poland’s Holger Harmsen, who suffered a high-speed incident at Les Combes in practice, to take the victory spoils with ASR’s Paolo Biglieri and Petar Matić second. Charlie Martin (#54 Brutal Fish Racing), who drove as a solo entry following the late withdrawal of regular team-mate Jason Keats, took third despite having to serve an early drivethrough penalty.
Race 2
During Saturday’s second race, an incident involving Charlie Martin and Alessio Ruffini brought out the safety car which resulted in the majority of cars entering the pit-lane when the pit window opened after 20 minutes. Due to safety reasons, the race director elected to stop the race. Subsequently, because the race clock could not be stopped during the red flag period, organisers did not have sufficient time to reform the full grid for the restart. Therefore, as per article 17 of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Sporting Regulation, half points were awarded to competitors, with Bonduel declared the overall winner.
The 2024 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season continues with the third round of the campaign taking place at the iconic Circuit de la Sarthe as the one-make championship joins the support bill of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the very first time. Super Trofeo Europe will also celebrate an historic 200th race since the inception of the European-based series in 2009 across the Le Mans weekend.
2024 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe calendar
19-21 April – Imola * FIA WEC
9-11 May – Spa-Francorchamps * FIA WEC
11-15 June – Le Mans * FIA WEC
26-28 July – Nürburgring * GT World Challenge Europe
11-13 October – Barcelona * GT World Challenge Europe
14-15 November – Jerez de la Frontera * Lamborghini World Finals
