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Misano hosted the first round of the European Super Trofeo Championship this weekend and VSR fielded two cars – a Pro entry for Olli Kangas and Edoardo Liberati and a Pro-Am entry for Karol Basz and Andrzej Lewandowski. Encouraging times in the opening free practice session saw both cars in the top three. Liberati and Lewandowski took the VSR Lamborghini’s out for the first qualifying session on Saturday afternoon and continued to show good pace. Liberati sealed a spot on the front row for race one and Lewandowski set the fourth fastest time in Pro-Am.
At the start of the race Liberati got ahead of Balthasar and quickly began to pull away only to be penalised for a jump-start. His drive-through penalty compromised the race for the number 6 car and despite his pace and a good stint from Kangas, who took over the car on lap seventeen, the pair took the flag in thirteenth place. VSR’s Pro-Am entry enjoyed a better evening. Lewandowski made a clean start and on lap two passed Knoll to move into fourteenth overall, third in Pro-Am. He pitted on lap thirteen and handed over to Basz who was immediately the quickest man on track, setting the fastest lap of the race on his first complete tour. The pit window closed on lap eighteen, by which time Basz was running in eighth overall, had taken the Pro-Am lead and was nineteen seconds behind the race leader. The Polish driver lit up the second part of the race as he quickly started to catch the cars ahead of him and on lap twenty-three passed Liddy for seventh. Four laps later he overtook Stoneman, then Rossel and with two laps to go wrestled fourth from Gilardoni before taking the chequered flag just seven seconds behind the overall victors Pavlovic and Guzman.
Kangas and Basz set the qualifying times for race two on Sunday. Basz continued to show an impressive turn of speed behind the wheel of the VSR Lambo, claiming pole position on his first flying lap. Kangas, making his Super Trofeo debut, set a time good enough for the sixth row of the grid. At the start Basz kept ahead of fellow front-row man and Pro-Am rival Spinelli as the lights went green and, setting the fastest lap of the race along the way, pulled out a seven second advantage during his stint. On lap six there was more bad luck for the VSR Pro car which retired with a mechanical issue halfway through Kangas’s opening stint. Basz stayed on track until the closure of the pit window handing the Pro-Am and overall lead to Lewandowski who kept ahead of the entire field with the exception of Stoneman who took the win. Basz and Lewandowski finished second overall and their double Pro-Am win leaves them leading their class as we look ahead to round two at the beginning of September.
Photos by Fotospeedy
