The penultimate event of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe and the season finale of the FANATEC GT World Challenge (GWTC) took place at the Grand Prix Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. At the fifth event of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe (LST), Leipert Motorsport brilliantly delivered great results with the five Lamborghini Super Trofeo EVO 2: one class win and five podium finishes. In the GTWC, the team started with the drivers Tutumlu-Lopez/Cooke/Leitch on the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo. After qualifying, the trio showed great speed in the race, but missed out on a top result due to two time penalties.
Super performance in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo – 1 class win and 5 podium places
Italian Gabriel Rindone (AM classification, #21) left Barcelona as the leader in the AM class. In both races he showed a strong performance. In race 1 he crossed the finish line in P3 in the AM class, in race 2 he took the second podium position. With these points score, he took the lead in the class standings.
The father-son pairing Louis Wagner/Yury Wagner (AM classification, #97) competed in this constellation for the first time this season and impressed straight away. In the first race, the Leipert Lamborghini was on pole position in the class. In the second race, the duo had to fight their way through the field from position 34. With a brilliant final sprint, Yury Wagner then made it to victory in the AM class and position 9 overall.
A positive weekend also for Brendon Leitch and partner Gerhard Watzinger (Pro-Am classification, # 70). In the first race, the duo took another podium place. From 10th on the grid, the duo drove their Crowdstrike Lamborghini to third place. In the second race the duo also showed a good performance and with great fighting spirit Watzinger brought home a strong 4th place. In the class standings, the duo is in 6th place before the season finale.
Things didn’t go quite as perfectly for drivers Jean-Francois Brunot/Kerong Li (Pro-Am classification, #87). After a strong qualifying for the first race – grid position 6 in the Pro-Am class and P12 overall in the 44-car field – the duo finished 11th in race one and 7th in class in race two.
The young Romanian David Serban (Pro classification, #18) underwent a difficult weekend, his consistent lap times in the races were unfortunately not rewarded. After contact with competitors in both races, he had to fight his way back through the field. In the end, this left him with two seventh places in the Pro classification. In the class standings, David Serban is currently in sixth place.
Great catch-up in GWTC with P14 in Silver Cup
The MOTUL-supported team from Wegberg entered the final GWTC round with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo and drivers Isaac Tutumlu-Lopez (ESP), Tyler Cooke (USA) and Brendon Leitch (NZ). In the test sessions and the following practice sessions, the team set strong lap times and worked out a good setup.
Things didn’t go quite so smoothly in the three qualifying sessions – the starting position was determined by the average of the best lap times of all three drivers. Tutumlu had contact with a competitor during his qualifying session, while Tyler Cooke was also involved in a collision in Q2. The car was extensively damaged in the collisions, making a competitive time unfeasible. With 46th place overall, the trio was beaten far below value.
Things went much better in the 3-hour race. Starting driver Tutumlu worked his way up to 31st place overall in the 48-car field with a very good performance in his stint. But then his efforts were ruined by a drive-through penalty. The Spaniard had lightly touched a competitor in the battle, who spun as a result. Another 10-second penalty for over-speeding in the pit lane dropped the #27 further back. Cooke took over the Lamborghini in 40th position, holding the position throughout his turn and closing the time gap on the competition with consistent lap times. In the last 30 minutes, final driver Leitch drove the Leipert Lamborghini up to 29th position, which meant 14th place in the Silver Cup class.
Managing Directors Marcel Leipert & Marc Poos:
“In the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe we saw two great races. Our drivers were almost flawless and brought all the cars to the finish line twice. For us, it was another extremely successful race weekend with five podiums and one class win. Now we are looking forward to the season finale in Portimao at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. There we will fight for the title in the AM classification and want to defend our lead in the team classification. We will bring a great season to a successful end there.”
“Overall, it was a good weekend for the team. Due to our speed, a better result would certainly have been possible in the FANATEC GT World Challenge. But due to our poor starting position after the unfortunate qualifying session, we were already at a disadvantage before the start. The penalties in the race then gave us the rest. We simply needed a little more luck. But the drivers put in a strong performance and the car was very competitive.”
The next stop for the team from Wegberg is the LSTE finale in Portimao (Portugal, 3-4 November). There, the team will compete in full strength with five Lamborghini cars and, on top of that, fight for the world championship title of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo against the competition from North America.
