Sant’Agata Bolognese/Spa, 27 July 2019 – Danny Kroes and Sergei Afanasiev made it three Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe wins in four races after a charging drive from fourth on the grid in Race 2 at Spa-Francorchamps. The Bonaldi Motorsport team-mates now lead the standings by 13 points over the Imperiale Racing duo of Vito Postiglione and Kikko Galbiati, who recovered for their Race 1 retirement to finish third.
Alberto Di Folco started the race from pole position in the #9 Target Racing car and comfortably led the opening stint over Race 1 winner Stuart Middleton (Bonaldi Motorsport). The experienced Italian built a gap of over four seconds, which was enough for team-mate Davide Venditti to rejoin in the lead following the mandatory pit-stops. Middleton stayed with Di Folco early on, with the #3 of Afanasiev a further three seconds back in third place. By the time the pit window opened, the leading trio were right together.
Once the pit window closed, Kroes - now at the wheel of the #3 - began to make his move towards the front as he closed on Jack Bartholomew in the #32. Kroes, easily the fastest driver on track, made a daring lunge round the outside of Bartholomew at Les Combes with 7 minutes remaining, before seizing the lead from Venditti on the inside of the same corner two laps later. From then on, Kroes was able to build a healthy margin over Venditti, who had to defend heavily from Bartholomew and the charging Postiglione - who took over from Galbiati at the pit-stops.
Postiglione challenged the rear of Bartholomew for several laps before making a late lunge down the inside of Turn 8 to claim third place. The order remained unchanged until the flag, with Kroes and Afanasiev claiming their third victory of the season, ahead of Postiglione and Galbiati.
Shota Abkhazava continued the impressive run of four consecutive victories for the #12 ArtLine Team Georgia Huracán, pairing with rookie driver Julien Falchero. The duo started the race from eighth on the grid and maintained this position throughout, beating the #67 of Luca Demarchi and Jim Litman.
Mikko Eskelinen and Jake Rattenbury led the Am class early on from pole but were unfortunately unable to repeat their Race 1 result following contact at the Fagnes chicane with the #21 GT3 Poland car of Andrej Lewandowski. The Leipert Motorsport car suffered terminal suspension damage and was forced to retire. That allowed Gilles Vannelet (AGS Events) and the second GT3 Poland car of Robert Zwinger to battle it out for honours. The pair were close for the opening stint and remained so after the pit stops; Vannelet’s team-mate Nicolas Gomar just edging away in the second stint to claim victory by over six seconds.
Defending Lamborghini Cup champion Gerhard van der Horst took victory after Race 1 winners Benoit and Francois Semoulin were penalised for speeding in the pit-lane during the stops. Van der Horst beat the AGS Events car of Joseph Collado, with the Semoulins finishing third in class.
The penultimate round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season takes place at the famous Nürburgring circuit on the weekend of 30th August/1st September.
