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7th July, 2019 – GT Cup Open Europe, Hungaroring
Hans-Peter Koller and Edoardo Liberati took pole position, fastest lap and victory at the Hungaroring in Saturday’s GT Cup Open Europe race in their VSR Lamborghini Super Trofeo Huracan Evo. Second place on Sunday as well as an Am podium for Mauro and Toni completed a good weekend for VSR.
The third round of the GT Cup Open Europe took place at the Hungaroring this weekend and VSR fielded a pair of Lamborghini Super Trofeo Huracan’s for the Pro-Am pairing of Edoardo Liberati and Hans-Peter Koller and the all Brazilian Am duo or JP Mauro and Rodolfo Toni. After a torrid time in Friday’s free practice the Pro-Am car was back on top on Saturday and it was Liberati who took the pole for race one. Toni qualified the Am car on the fourth row and was fifth fastest in class.
At the start of the race Liberati easily held the lead and began immediately to pull away from the rest of the field. Such was the Italian’s pace that he had built up a lead of half a minute by the time the pit window opened and the driver changes began. In the Am class, Toni, soldiering on despite being unwell, passed Tremblay, Resichl and Basso during his stint and handed his Lamborghini over to Mauro on lap twelve. Mauro was quickly on the pace but a drive through penalty for a clash with Fortes dropped the VSR Am car down the order and the Brazilian pair finished fourth in class. Koller took over the leading car from Liberati on lap seventeen and despite a strong challenge from Blugeon held on to take overall and Pro-Am victory for the second time this season.
Mauro took Am pole position in Sunday morning’s qualifying, setting the second fastest time of the session and securing himself a front row start. Koller qualified the Pro-Am car on row six and was the fifth fastest Pro-Am driver. At the start Mauro lost out to Solieri whilst Koller survived a scary moment when an Audi spun across his path. Mauro quickly became involved in a tense battle with Solieri ahead and Blugeon behind, the trio rarely covered by more than a second. The pit window opened on lap twelve and Koller, who had passed Fortes for tenth place, stopped immediately to hand over to Liberati. Mauro remained out for a further four laps, passing Solieri for second place one lap before pitting. Liberati, setting the fastest lap of the race immediately, was soon carving his way through the field passing Curti, Leutwiler and Solieri before swapping positions with Toni in the other VSR car. On lap twenty six he caught Blugeon, running in second place, and two laps later found a way past the Porsche. Over the final two laps he closed the gap to leader Basso to just under a second but ran out of time and took the chequered flag in a fine second place. Toni completed a successful weekend for the whole team by finishing fifth overall, second in Am.
The GT Open Cup Europe now takes a break for the summer and will resume at Silverstone in September.
