Sant'Agata Bolognese/Imola, November 18th 2017 - The fifth edition of the Lamborghini World Final has started today with qualifying sessions and two of the four races on schedule at the Imola circuit. 53 were the cars at the start fighting for the victory but the epilogue was almost unexpected in all classes. In the PRO, the victory went to the crew of Prestige Performance formed by Riccardo Agostini and Trent Hindman, galvanized by the title taken in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America last Friday, during the last round of the continental series. In the PRO-AM, the race was won by the Italian-English duo of US RaceTronics, formed by Edoardo Piscopo and Taylor Proto. The German drivers, Philipp Wlazik and Florian Scholze, triumphed in the AM, which reserved several surprises and in the same race the Dutchman Gerard Van Der Horst won in the Lamborghini Cup.
In the race for the classes PRO and PRO-AM, the 21-year-old Italian driver, Riccardo Agostini, after starting from the pole position, immediately took the lead and maintained the position until the pit-stops. Behind him finished the new European champion, Loris Spinelli, with a car of Antonelli Motorsport . The driver did an excellent start that allowed him to recover two positions. Yuki Nemoto, second in qualifying, slipped behind. It is also worth mentioning the performance of Dennis Lind, who managed to take the third position in the early laps. Only during the pit-stops, Mikaël Grenier managed to get ahead of him, after taking over the wheel from Spinelli. From that moment, the Canadian driver did everything to repel the attacks of Hindman (who had taken over the wheel from Agostini). Less than two minutes from the end of the race, the latter did an amazing overtaking maneuver at the Rivazza bend allowing him to take the lead and achieve his first success. On the podium was also the duo of Bonaldi Motorsport formed by the 2015 champion, Patrick Kujala, and Richard Antinucci, who managed to prevail over Lind and Andrea Amici (Emperor Racing) at the end of the race.
In the PRO-AM, a perfect strategy eventually rewarded Piscopo and Taylor. During the early laps, however, the young Swiss driver, Lucas Mauron, was in the lead in his class and always in the overall top-ten with a car of AGS Events, followed by Brandon Gdovic (DAC Motorsports), who was the fastest in his category during qualifying. The American driver, who shared the wheel with Emmanuel Anassis, eventually finished third. The second place was taken by the two Belgians Niels Lagrange and Pieter Vanneste (Leipert Motorsport).
The first of the two races for the classes AM and Lamborghini Cup was marked by a continuous change in the top positions, with three different leaders and the same number of neutralizations. Eventually, the victory went to Florian Scholze and Philipp Wlazik. For the German crew of Dörr Motorsport, this was the third win of the year, after those achieved at Spa and the Nürburgring in the European series. It was an incredible victory, obtained 12 minutes before the end of the race, after Yuki Harata, who had started from the pole with a car of Dream Racing Motorsport, managed to take the lead during the first laps. The Japanese driver remained in the lead, despite two safety car periods having the effect of re-assembling the front group. After the pit-stops, the Pole of VS Racing, Andrej Lewandowski, managed to take the lead but then had a contact with Harata and they were both forced to withdraw from the race. It was at that moment that Scholze, who did the second stint, conquered the lead. Carrie Schreiner, instead, was second overall before being overtaken by Matej Konopka (ARC Bratislava). The German lady driver of FFF Racing Team slipped third but then finished further back because of a contact with Dilantha Malagamuwa. The bottom step of the podium was taken by Mario Cordoni, with the first Huracán Super Trofeo of GDL Racing.
The Lamborghini Cup was equally eventful and in this class the victory went to the Dutchman Gerard Van der Horst, who is already champion of the European series. Behind him finished respectively Oliver Engelhardt (Dörr Motorsport) and Tim Richards (Toro Loco). The protagonist of the first laps was the Colombian Juan Perez, who managed to get the fourth overall position and the first class place by overtaking, with the car of Antonelli Motorsport, the American Ryan Hardwick (Dream Racing Motorsport), the fastest driver during qualifying, but a contact between the two drivers caused the entrance of the safety car for the third time. An off-track excursion subsequently penalized the Thai Supachai Weeraborwornpong (Siam Gas Racing Team), who had managed to take the lead. This inconvenience therefore allowed Van der Horst to take the victory.
Tomorrow, the races will start respectively at 10:20 a.m. (AM/Lamborghini Cup) and at 2:00 p.m. (PRO/PRO-AM). Both races will last 50 minutes and will have a rolling start and a mandatory pit-stop. They will be available in live streaming on: http://squadracorse.lamborghini.com/live-streaming.
DRIVERS’ QUOTES
Riccardo Agostini/Prestige Performance (1st overall and in the PRO): "It was a very beautiful race. I did an excellent start and kept the leading position. I don’t know what happened during the pit-stops, as Hindman came back in second position but then did a great stint with no mistakes; he led Grenier to make one instead.
Edoardo Piscopo/US RaceTronics (1st in the PRO-AM): "I’m really happy about this victory. In qualifying, we had the wrong tire pressure, therefore we had to start further back than expected. But we knew the race would be hard-fought, so we tried to save the car at the start to give the maximum at the end; a strategy that proved to be successful".
Philipp Wlazik/Dörr Motorsport (1st overall and in the AM): "We are very happy about this victory. It was an abnormal race, with several safety car periods that forced me to stay focused to the maximum. The team and my co-driver, Florian Scholze, also did an excellent job".
Gerard Van der Horst/Van der Horst Motorsport (1st in the Lamborghini Cup): "I didn’t expect this victory. I always pushed, even if there were very fast drivers ahead of me. Everything went well. It was a great start for this World Final".