Spinelli, Weering Victorious in First Grand Finals Pro Race

Loris Spinelli and Max Weering came out on top in the first Pro/Pro-Am Lamborghini Grand Finals race after an enthralling battle between Spinelli and Nelson Piquet Jr. in the opening half of the race.

The No. 61 Bonaldi Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 came across the line with a margin of 2.8 seconds over Piquet’s No. 130 ANSA Motorsports car.

The Brazilian finished on the road behind Target Racing’s Milan Teekens, but the Dutchman received a late five-second penalty for track limits that dropped he and co-driver Marzio Moretti.

Spinelli and Piquet Jr. fought a lengthy battle for the lead of the race in the opening half of the race.

The two cars were glued together for many laps with Spinelli making multiple attempts to wrestle the lead away from the polesitting Brazilian.

The fight was eventually decided in Spinelli’s favor when Piquet Jr. ran wide out of Turn 11, which then allowed Spinelli to wrestle his way past around the outside at T13 before quickly extending the gap.

This allowed Weering to inherit the car in the lead and stay ahead of compatriot Teekens, who had vaulted into second position through the pit cycle.

The final result at Portimao was heavily influenced by a large amount of track limits penalties, with some of the many Pro drivers receiving five-second penalties including Giano Taurino, Patrick Kujala, Luke Berkeley and Jean Luc D’Auria.

Edoardo Liberati and Dario Capitanio were classified fourth, with D’Auria and Stephane Tribaudini fifth ahead of Wayne Taylor Racing pairing Danny Formal and Kyle Marcelli sixth after recovering from a back-of-grid start.

Pro-Am victory went to the Precision Performance Motorsports duo of Sebastian Carazo and Bryan Ortiz, with former MotoGP racer Dani Pedrosa and Antonin Borga finishing second.

A track limit penalty dropped Gerhard Watzinger and Brendan Leitch to third, completing the podium ahead of Ashton Harrison and Tom Long.