.JPG)
PRESS RELEASE: 6th November 2022
Lewandowski completes perfect weekend with Grand Final victory
European Lamborghini Super Trofeo – Grand Final, Portimao
The 2022 season concluded with another title for Lewandowski and VSR in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Grand Final at Portimao.
Lewandowski, driving alone in the Am class started Saturday’s race from the second row of the grid after qualifying fourth. A spin from Rindone promoted him up to third just before the Safety Car came out for a quick two lap neutralisation. Lewandowski was aggressive at the restart and quickly passed Staab to take second place. The pit window opened on lap eleven and two laps later Lewandowski pitted. O’Brien, the race leader, waited three more laps before stopping and when his team-mate Atapattu exited the pits Lewandowski passed him immediately to take the lead. The fastest man on track in the second half of the race, Lewandowski had everything under control when a crash bought out the Safety Car and then forced the race to be red-flagged. With over seventy-five per cent of the race completed Lewandowski was declared the victor. Sunday’s race saw Lewandowski start from row two but by turn three he was past Au and into second. At the halfway point Lewandowski was five seconds back from Reger who pitted one lap after the VSR driver and gave the lead of the race to his team-mate Staab. Despite having a longer mandatory stop for driving alone Lewandowski closed to within one second of Staab as the race entered the final fifteen minutes. The VSR driver made several attempts to pass, once getting ahead of the American driver only for Staab to retake the position off the track, but the battle continued to the wire. At the chequered flag the two cars were separated by just 0.2 seconds but the points for second combined with the win from Saturday were enough to earn Lewandowski the Grand Final victory.
In the first of the Pro and Pro-Am races Tribaudini qualified on the fourth row and Zonzini on row nine after setting the sixth fastest time in the Pro-Am class. At the end of a frenetic first lap Tribaudini was lying in eighth and Zonzini in fourteenth. Tribaudini was quick to pass Taurino and join the end of a train of cars from third to seventh which remained covered by less than five seconds until the pit window. Zonzini made it up to thirteenth before a tussle with Wells dropped him down the order. D’Auria took over the Pro car from Tribaudini on lap thirteen and when the pit window closed was the fastest man on track. By lap twenty-one he had caught Capitanio in fourth place but couldn’t find a way past the American until the penultimate lap. Despite taking the flag in fourth a time penalty for track limits dropped D’Auria back to fifth in the final classification. Colombini bought the 78 car home tenth in class to claim the final Pro-Am point.
D’Auria started race two from the tenth row and was quickly past Johnson and Gatting moving up to eighth by lap two. An overtake on Taurino moved him into seventh and Bonduel’s retirement into sixth. He had caught the battle for fourth between Teekens and Leitch just as the pit window opened but was then slowed by a technical issue which affected Tribaudini for the rest of the race, leaving the pair out of the points. Colombini started from the eleventh row and made it up to sixth in Pro-Am before the pit window opened and he boxed for Zonzini. A fighting drive from Zonzini saw him gain a further four places in Pro-Am to finish the season on a high with a second place finish for the Eccentrica liveried car.
ENDS
