NEWS
THRILLING VICTORY AT MONZA FOR THE ALL ITALIAN LAMBORGHINI CREW OF LIBERATI, MICHELOTTO AND ZANON
Jun 21, 2026
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2026 Italian GT Endurance Championship, Round 2 – Monza
Liberati-Michelotto-Zanon take tight Monza win for Lamborghini
**strong P5 for Bowen-Salmenautio-Spinelli in the sister car**
The Italian GT Endurance Championship continued this weekend at a super-hot Monza.
With Hugo Cook busy at Spa his place in the 63 VSR Lambo was taken by Loris Spinelli who shared the Pro entry with Alex Bowen and Jesse Salmenautio. There was no change for the sister car with the all-Italian line-up of Edoardo Liberati, Mattia Michelotto and Ignazio Zanon continuing together.
After a complicated qualifying, with the fifty-four car field divided into two groups, the grid was set and the VSR cars lined up together on the seventh and eighth rows for the start of the three-hour Endurance race. Bowen started the 63 car from row seven with Liberati just behind him. After an incident free start Liberati ran eleventh and Bowen fifteenth. On lap three Liberati broke into the top ten and behind him Bowen started picking up places, running thirteenth on lap eight. Two tours later Liberati was the fastest man on track and had moved into eighth as Bowen passed Fontana for twelfth. On lap eleven there was a short Safety Car intervention whilst a GT Cup car was collected from the gravel. Racing resumed just before the first pit window and at the restart Liberati was quick to take seventh from Renmans. On lap seventeen Bowen pitted for Salmenautio and a lap later Liberati gave the 66 to Zanon. Liberati’s speed during the pit window was such that Zanon took to the track in the lead of the race, just a few seconds ahead of Donno. Salmenautio was up to eighth when the Safety Car came out again for another GT cup incident. Racing resumed just before the second pit window. Lap thirty saw Salmenautio hand the 63 to Spinelli for his first stint and Zanon stopped from the lead two laps later so Michelotto could jump into the car. After just a handful of laps, during which Spinelli fought his way to fourth, the Safety Car was back on track again. At the green Alatalo got ahead of Spinelli and the two raced side by side for several corners before Spinelli reclaimed the position, a move for which he earned a five second penalty. A Full Course Yellow followed almost immediately and lasted through the third pit window during which Zanon took over from Michelotto and Spinelli gave the 63 back to Salmenautio. With the pit window closed the Safety Car rejoined the track to close up the pack and at the hundred-minute points scoring mark Zanon held the lead and Salnenautio was third. At the restart Ugran got his BMW ahead of the 63 Lambo as Zanon held off Segù.
Just before the fourth window the 18 Lambo parked in the gravel and a second full course yellow covered the full ten-minute window. Zanon boxed from the lead, followed by Segù in second and Ugran in third and Liberati jumped into the 66 for his second stint. Salmenautio came in a lap later and Bowen got behind the wheel of the sister car. As the race entered the final hour the full course yellow continued before the Safety Car arrived to bunch up the pack and racing resumed with thirty-five minutes left on the clock. At the final pit window Michelotto took over from Liberati and Spinelli got back in the 63. With just a handful of seconds covering the top five it was a fight to the flag and Michelotto took the win by just under two seconds from Donno. Spinelli took the flag in fifth but the earlier penalty put the 63 car back to fifth position.
The Endurance Championship now takes a break and will resume after the summer break with a three hour race at Imola.
2026 Italian GT Endurance Championship
Misano: 9-10 May
Monza: 20-21 June
Imola: 5-6 September
Mugello: 30 October – 1 November
END
