Bonduel wins wet opener and adds second place on Sunday to take back control of Pro title race

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Nürburgring, 28 July 2024 – BDR Competition by Grupo Prom’s Amaury Bonduel and Art-Line’s Egor Orudzhev took a win apiece as Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe entered the second half of the 2024 season at the Nürburgring.

Bonduel took victory in a wet opening race of the weekend on Saturday, staving off a fierce attack from his chief title rivals in the #9 Target Racing car, Oliver Söderström and Largim Ali to win by just under five seconds. Jesse Salmenautio and Giorgio Amati finished third for Iron Lynx. In Pro-Am, Mičánek Motorsport’s Štefan Rosina and Bronislav Formánek took the win ahead of Target Racing’s Calle Bergman and Guido Luchetti. VS Racing came out on top in the Am class as Piergiacomo Randazzo and Stéphane Tribaudini, while Art-Line’s Shota Abkhazava triumphed in Lamborghini Cup.

Race two was held under blue skies and sunshine, with Orudzhev making a superb getaway to leap eight places by turn one. This helped him achieve a breakthrough maiden victory in the one-make series as Bonduel finished second. Target Racing’s Frederik Schandorff and Alex Au held on to take Pro-Am spoils as Tribaudini and Randazzo ended up on the overall podium in third, comfortably winning the Am class. In LB Cup, Abkhazava was again the driver to beat as he claimed the win.

Race 1

Pro

With heavy rain affecting much of Saturday’s track action, the first race of the weekend started behind the safety car, with pole-sitter Bonduel maintaining his lead from Iron Lynx’s Salmenautio into the first corner. Behind, the Target Racing car of Hampus Ericsson briefly took to the gravel at turn six, while local driver Sebastian Balthasar (Leipert Motorsport) did likewise at turn eight. Further down the order, Charlie Martin – racing for Iron Lynx for the first time – was involved in an incident and was forced out of the race with damage. Before the end of the first lap, Söderström moved up into second place with a superb overtake around the outside of Salmenautio at turn 12 and began his pursuit of the leader Bonduel. The #9 Huracán made significant inroads into the deficit, but Bonduel pulled clear ahead of the mandatory pit-stops. Having spent three seconds fewer in the pit lane, Söderström’s team-mate Ali emerged back on the track ahead of Bonduel but was soon under immense pressure. Bonduel made it ahead of Ali at turn three, after initially getting past under braking for turn one before running wide at the next corner. Ali valiantly searched for a way back ahead at turn 12 and indeed closed back in late in the race, but Bonduel had enough in the bag to take his fourth victory of the season, by just over four seconds. Salmenautio and Giorgio Amati put in a solid drive to take their second podium finish of the year in third, while Ericsson recovered strongly to finish fourth ahead of Orudzhev. Benedetto Strignano and Alberto di Folco were sixth, with Schumacher CLRT’s Simon Tirman and Simon Gachet seventh.

Pro-Am

In Pro-Am, the battle went right down to the final stages as Formánek and Rosina struck late to take the win, beating VS Racing’s Andrea Frassineti and Ignazio Zanon. The latter, in the #16 VS Racing machine led away from pole and was engaged in a lively scrap with the Target Racing car of Guido Luchetti. The pair swapped positions twice on the same lap, before Frassineti came out on top before the stops. The order remained that way until Luchetti’s team-mate Calle Bergman had to serve a drivethrough for a short pit-stop, promoting Rosina to second. The Czech driver produced a strong second stint for the #11 and overhauled Zanon, as did the returning Schandorff and Au who, after being tagged by the #2 of Renaud Kuppens, did well to finish third behind team-mates Bergman and Luchetti.

Am

Tribaudini and Randazzo claimed another victory in the Am class, beating GM Motorsport’s Marco Gersager and Schumacher CLRT’s Stéphan Guerin. Stéphane Lemeret led the way at the rolling start for CMR with Randazzo keeping up chase behind. After the pit-stops, Tribaudini moved the #66 car into the lead and began to stretch his legs versus the rest of the field; he eventually finished 12^th overall. Gersager took his second podium finish in a row, with Guerin finishing just under half a second clear of Rexal Villorba Corse’s Cyril Saleilles. Target Racing’s Huilin Han was involved in an incident with a Lamborghini Cup competitor and received a 10-second post-race time penalty as a result; he finished seventh.

Lamborghini Cup

Shota Abkhazava (Art-Line) was largely untroubled on his way to victory in the Lamborghini Cup class, leading from pole to flag in his #75 Huracán. His nearest rival was Aggressive Team Italia’s Karim Ojjeh either side of the pit-stops, but the experienced multiple class champion was unfazed en route to his second win of the year. The father and son combination of Luciano and Donovan Privitelio completed the podium in third place, profiting from a late spin into the pit wall at the final corner for BDR Competition by Grupo Prom’s Alfredo Hernandez Ortega. Off the podium, Holger Harmsen (GT3 Poland) was fourth ahead of Petar Matic (ASR).

Amaury Bonduel (BDR Competition by Grupo Prom) said: “I’m very happy with the victory today, it was a great battle with Largim and I had to fight really hard, also with the tyres and the conditions which were not at all easy. I also had a problem with the alternator which made it difficult but, in the end, I am happy to win again and take the lead of the championship back once more.”

Race 2

Pro

A drying track in the second qualifying session dedicated to the Am and LB Cup entries ensured a mixed-up grid for Sunday’s second race, with polesitter Schandorff joined on the front-row by Stéphane Tribaudini’s Am class VS Racing Huracán. Among the Pro cars, it was Orudzhev who made the best start from a comparatively lowly 11^th place on the grid; the Art-Line driver made the most of a bunched-up pack at turn one to emerge in third place and ahead of race one winner Bonduel. Behind, Ali had a poor start from third on the grid, dropping to eighth before working his way back into seventh by the end of the opening lap. Orudzhev then got the better of Schandorff on the second lap and settled into a rhythm before the pit window opened. Bonduel had made good inroads into Orudzhev’s lead, having overtaken Ali and Jacob Riegel to lie fourth before the stops, just under four seconds back. Orudzhev made his stop at the end of the 10-minute window and rejoined ahead of Bonduel, before managing to extend his slender margin over the remaining 18 minutes to come home for his maiden Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe victory by a little over six seconds at the flag. Despite missing out on a double victory, Bonduel increased his points lead with second, as Riegel and Balthasar claimed the final step on the podium in third on home soil. Ali and Söderström couldn’t replicate their race one pace and fell behind Target Racing team-mate Ericsson, while Uniq Racing’s Jerzy Spinkiewicz recorded his best result of the season in seventh.

Egor Orudzhev (Art-Line) said: “It feels great to finally win a race, it has been a long time coming as we have had a lot of bad luck in basically every weekend so far this season. To be honest, after starting P11, I would never have thought that I would be on the podium because it is really hard get in front, especially with the tyre degradation that we have had this weekend. But to be in P3 at turn one and then pull off a great move to take P2, it was mega.”

Pro-Am

Schandorff and Au bounced back from their relative disappointment   after race one with a measured and largely dominant performance to take victory in race two. Despite a poor initial launch from the rolling start, Schandorff showed great pace during his stint and got back ahead of Orudzhev’s Pro entry to lie second overall ahead of the pit window opening. As expected, the Dane waited until the end of the window before coming in to change with Au, who maintained his position in class until the end, despite the strong second stint from the Micánek Motorsport car of Bronislav Formánek. Schandorff and Au finished a creditable 11^thoverall, with Formánek and Štefan Rosina three places further back. Lola Lovinfosse recorded a breakthrough maiden podium finish with third in her first season of Lamborghini Super Trofeo. The Young Driver Programme member, sharing the #76 car this weekend with Laurent Hurgon, put in a strong drive in the second stint to overhaul the Target Racing entry of Guido Luchetti and Calle Bergman. Formánek and Rosina now take a comfortable championship lead over Boutsen VDS pairing Roee Meyuhas and Renaud Kuppens heading into the penultimate round of the year at Barcelona.

Am

VS Racing’s Tribaudini and Randazzo were the stars of the show in race two, leading the race overall after a superb start from the former to depose Schandorff on the inside of turn one. The Frenchman then proceeded to extend his margin through the lapped traffic as others made their pit-stops and, by the time he handed over to Randazzo, the #66 car was easily clear of the Am rivals. Finishing second was the Schumacher CLRT Huracán of Stéphan Guerin with Target Racing’s Huilin Han completing the podium in third. CMR’s Stéphane Lemeret and Rodrigue Gillion had been in the mix early on but a penalty dropped them down the order. In the standings, Randazzo and Tribaudini are now in a prime position to claim the title, with a 28.5-point margin over Guerin.

Lamborghini Cup

Shota Abkhazava made it a day to remember for Art-Line by taking his second LB Cup victory of the weekend to close to within 2.5-points of the championship lead. The #75 machine led from pole position and was never seriously challenged all race, despite coming under slight pressure from the Rexal Villorba Corse car of Donovan Privitelio in the opening stages. After the pit-stops, Luciano Privitelio dropped back, which allowed Aggressive Team Italia’s Karim Ojjeh into second, with Iron Lynx’s Charlie Martin and John Seale promoted to third place after a post-race time penalty for GT3 Poland’s Holger Harmsen.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe now takes an extended break before reconvening for the fifth and penultimate round of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya in Spain, on the weekend of the 7-8 October. The one-make championship will then conclude its 2024 season in November, also in Spain at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit which will also host the traditional end-of-year Lamborghini World Finals.