Sant'Agata Bolognese/Rome, November 17, 2018 - The sixth edition of the Lamborghini World Final kicked off today at Vallelunga and proclaimed the first four winners. All the best protagonists of the one-make series for the cars of the House of Sant’Agata Bolognese came back into action on the Roman track that until yesterday hosted the final round of the three continental series. In the PRO class, the victory went to the Asian crew of the Clazzio Racing team formed by Kei Cozzolino and Afiq Yazid. Loris Spinelli and JC Perez (P1 Motorsport) won in the PRO-AM class, after taking the European and North American titles. Ryan Hardwick and Justin Price (Dream Racing Motorsport) respectively won in the AM and Lamborghini Cup categories.
The race for the PRO and PRO-AM classes was animated, with the new European champion Giacomo Altoè (Antonelli Motorsport) starting from pole and maintaining the leading position until the pit-stops. An irregularity in the pit stops, however, resulted in a drive-thru to his teammate Daniel Zampieri, who also received a 20-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. Kelvin Snoeks, who had taken over from James Pull (Bonaldi Motorsport), was also given a drive-thru penalty followed by a black flag. In this alternation of unespected events, Kei Cozzolino and Afiq Yaziq (Clazzio Racing) took the victory. The second place went to the Leipert Motorsport crew formed by Ben Gersekowski and Richard Muscat, who finished ahead of their teammates Niels Lagrange and Frederik Schandorff.
In PRO-AM category, JC Perez and Loris Spinelli took another win. The duo of P1 Motorsport started in the best way. Immediately behind, Lorenzo Bontempelli and Emanuele Zonzini, after an initial contact managed to move up second with the car of the Iron Lynx team and finished ahead of the Finns Mikko Eskelinen and Juuso Puhakka (Leipert Motorsport). Andrej Lewandowski, who had taken over the VS Racing car from Edoardo Liberati (the fastest PRO-AM driver in Q1), was put out of the race by another contact.
Dream Racing Motorsport scored two class wins in Race 1 for AM and Lamborghini Cup drivers. Manuel Lauck, author of the pole position, took the lead during his first driving stint. The German driver of the Dörr Motorsport team, who then gave the wheel to Florian Scholze, set an excellent pace. The latter driver kept the lead until two laps from the end, when he was overtaken by Ryan Hardwick at the Roma curve. This move enabled the American to take the win. Raffaele Giannoni, second in qualifying with a car of Automobile Tricolore, lost a position after the pit-stops and finished third. Christopher Brück (Konrad Motorsport) was forced to retire while he was in fourth position. Davide Roda (Antonelli Motorsport) made a good comeback and from the eighth position he came close to the top three, fighting in the final stages with Canadian Damon Ockey (US Race Tronics), who completed the "top 5”.
In the Lamborghini Cup, the victory went to Justin Price. Behind him was Frenchman Joseph Collado (AGS Events), with the European champion Gerard Van der Horst, who finished third. Poor luck for the other American Brett Meredith (P1 Motorsport), who had set the best lap time in Q1 and was leading the race until two laps from the end, when he had to stop.
The activities of the 2018 Lamborghini World Final will continue tomorrow morning with the second race for the AM and Lamborghini Cup classes scheduled for 10:00 a.m. CET. Race 2 for the PRO and PRO-AM categories will instead kick off at 2:25 p.m. CET. All the races (each lasting 50 minutes) can be followed in live streaming on the website squadracorse.lamborghini.com/live-streaming and on the Lamborghini Squadra Corse Facebook page www.facebook.com/LamborghiniSquadraCorse.
DRIVERS’ QUOTES
Kei Cozzolino/Clazzio Racing (1st PRO): "It was a great race. At the start, I tried to overtake Altoè, but I was in the dirty part of the track, therefore I had to give up and stayed behind for a long time. Maybe, we also had a better pace and in the end Yazid did a great job, bringing home this victory".
Loris Spinelli/P1 Motorsport (1st PRO-AM): "I made an excellent start. I was very careful also because Liberati was pushing behind me. Then, during the driver change, we lost 5 seconds and Perez came back to the track in second position. I’m happy with this class win and we’re now waiting for the second race tomorrow".
Ryan Hardwick/Dream Racing Motorsport (1st AM): "I'm really happy. I knew I could do it. My team gave me a great car all year long. Yesterday, we won the North American Championship. Today, I gave all that I had to achieve this victory".
Justin Price/Dream Racing Motorsport (1st Lamborghini Cup): "I couldn't be more excited. I took my first win ever in a World Final. This is my first season in car racing and the first time here in Vallelunga.”