Sant’Agata Bolognese/Silverstone, 11 May 2019 – Bonaldi Motorsport pairing Stuart Middleton and Jack Bartholomew (#32 Huracán Super Trofeo Evo) claimed a dramatic victory in the opening Lamborghini Super Trofeo race of the season, following late-race contact between leaders Karol Basz (#8 Imperiale Racing) and Kikko Galbiati (#44 Imperiale Racing).
The #44, in the hands of Vito Postiglione, had been leading since the start after making a terrific getaway from pole position, but fell into the clutches of the charging Basz, who took over from Bartosz Paziewski, as a late safety car period bunched the field up. Basz managed to reduced what had been a five second deficit to the #44 to just half a second following the mandatory driver-change pit-stop and subsequent safety car intervention for the stricken AGS Events Huracán of Frenchman Joseph Collado. But the Polish driver, trying to overtake at Village, tagged the back of Galbiati, spinning the leader out with barely three minutes of the race remaining. Middleton ran fifth as the race entered its closing stages, after taking over from Bartholomew in the #33 Bonaldi Motorsport car but kept his nose clean to pick up the pieces to record the win on his series debut.
Despite a troublesome practice and qualifying, Davide Venditti and Alberto di Folco (#9 Target Rcing SRL) produced a stunning race performance to finish second overall to Middleton and won PRO-Am class. The pair worked together superbly to charge from 14th on the grid to inherit the second step on the podium following Knoll and Galbiati's contact. Sergey Afanasiev and Danny Kroes rounded out the podium finishers in third place, ahead of the runner-up in Pro-Am Harald Schlegelmich/Shota Abkhazava (#12 ArtLine Team Georgia) in fourth.
Nicolas Gomar beat Raffaele Giannoni in an entertaining Am class battle between the two, with just four seconds separating both at the finish line. Gomar started second on the grid behind the #33 Leipert Motorsport car of Mikko Eskelinen/Jake Rattenbury but took the lead on the opening lap. Giannoni fought valiantly but could not find a way past and had to settle for runner-up.
Lamborghini Super Trofeo débutants François and Benoit Semoulin took victory in the Lamborghini Cup class with a dominant display in their #26 Semspeed Huracán. Gerhard van der Horst was second, with British driver Tim Richards third.
On Sunday, Race 2 starts at 11.10 a.m. local time. The race will be live-streamed on Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s Facebook page, Instagram account, YouTube channel and Motorsport.tv.