With three race victories and a pair of second place finishes, Lamborghini achieved its best race weekend of the year so far courtesy of success in both the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup at Zandvoort and International GT Open at Spa-Francorchamps. Emil Frey Racing took their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evos to two victories in the Netherlands, while Vincenzo Sospiri Racing capped off the weekend with a one-two finish across the border in Belgium.
The second round of the GT World Challenge Sprint Cup began in fine fashion as the Silver Cup Emil Frey Racing duo of Ricardo Feller and Alex Fontana secured pole position for the opening one-hour race of the weekend, in a disrupted qualifying session on Saturday morning. The #14 Huracán set a best time of 1:33.586 to take the top position as Silver Cup cars dominated the top three on the starting grid. Feller headed the field off the rolling start and maintained his advantage into the first corner, Tarzan, on the opening lap, while the fourth-placed starter of Lamborghini Factory Driver Albert Costa (#163 Emil Frey Racing) lost several positions at the start after being blocked by the fast-starting Bentley of Nelson Panciatici, who would eventually receive a penalty.
Feller’s pace at the front was impressive and the Swiss driver extended his margin in the lead over the other Bentley of Ulysse de Pauw to over five seconds inside the first 10 laps. Meanwhile, Lamborghini was also leading the Pro-Am category from pole position, as Miguel Ramos headed the way in the #77 Barwell Motorsport Huracán. Feller then brought the #14 Huracán into the pits for the mandatory driver-change stop just after half-distance, switching with Fontana who continued to lead after a brief full course yellow period for debris at the entry to the pit-lane. Fontana had maintained a 10-second lead over the Bentley of Pierre-Alexandre Jean and the short FCY enabled him to continue extending his margin to a comfortable 15-seconds.
For Siedler’s team-mate Albert Costa, the race ended in disappointment after contact with the #66 Audi at the first corner while disputing seventh place. Costa was forced to go through the gravel tap at Tarzan and suffered damage to his car, which eventually ruled him out at Turn 2. Despite this setback for the team, Fontana and Feller brought the #14 car home for its first overall victory of the season, with Ramos and team-mate Henrique Chaves capping off a successful day with victory in the Pro-Am class.
Costa was the highest placed of the Lamborghinis for Race 2 in fourth and made a solid start to leapfrog into third place at the start of Sunday’s encounter. The Spaniard showed great poised and composure to sit behind the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Christian Engelhart despite having the faster car in the opening stages of the race. Superior pace during the pit-stop phase allowed Siedler – who had taken over from Costa – to move into second place behind the leading Mercedes of Timur Boguslavskiy.
That then became the lead as the Mercedes retired in the second stint, leaving Siedler with a narrow lead over Dries Vanthoor’s Audi. Siedler was able to extend his margin lap-by-lap to just over two seconds before Vanthoor received a pit-lane speeding penalty, elevating Feller and Fontana – who had climbed from 16th on the grid – to second. Behind, the #114 car of Konsta Lappalainen – who took over from Jack Aitken at the stops – brilliantly fended off the Bentley of De Pauw to claim their best finish of the year so far in fourth overall, third among the Pro category cars.
Schandorff and Beretta lead VS Racing one-two at Spa
Not too far away from Zandvoort, Lamborghini was celebrating another one-two as VS Racing’s Frederik Schandorff and Michele Beretta secured their second International GT Open victory of the season in Race 2. Their latest success moves the pairing to just one point away from the points lead heading into the next round at the Hungaroring next month. Finishing second to Schandorff and Beretta was the sister VS Racing car of Yuki Nemoto and Baptiste Moulin.
