TR3 Wins Pro/Pro-Am Race 1 After VSR Penalty

Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre were declared the winners of Lamborghini World Finals Pro/Pro-Am Race 1 at Misano after Adam Putera received a five-second penalty for contact with Hampus Ericsson that came amidst a three-car lead battle on the final lap.

De La Torre, Ericsson and Putera were engaged in a tight scrap at the end of the first of two races at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli that will determine the Pro world champions.

Initially, Ericsson appeared to have made the race-winning move when he moved up the inside of De La Torre’s No. 129 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 at Turn 8.

However, with De La Torre taking a wide line approaching Turn 9, it opened the door for the Putera-driven No. 6 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing car to leap up the inside.

The Malaysian made contact with Ericsson, pushing the Swede’s No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing machine wide at Turn 10.

Putera moved through into the lead with De La Torre in tow, while Ericsson’s wounded car dropped out of the podium positions.

The No. 6 car, which Putera shares with Paul Levet, initially crossed the line first, but a five-second penalty demoted them to second place behind De La Torre and Bamber.

Enzo Geraci and Josef Knopp completed the overall podium at the wheel of the No. 36 Oregon Team Lamborghini, ahead of the No. 99 Leipert Motorsport machine of Silas Rytter and Anthony Pretorius.

Ericsson and Danny Formal were classified fifth overall, initially finishing seventh but getting promoted after penalties for Benedetto Strignano as well as Luke Berkeley and Ernie Francis Jr.

Formal started from pole in the No. 101 machine and held a lead of just under two seconds by the time he pitted to hand over to Ericsson, but a successful overcut allowed De La Torre to emerge out in front after taking over from Bamber.

De La Torre held off an initial challenge from Ericsson, including a battle in which the latter briefly captured the lead before the No. 129 car slipped back up the inside through Turn 9 and 10.

Moments later, a safety car was triggered when Guido Luchetti’s No. 10 Target Racing car stopped at Turn 3.

When the race resumed with seven minutes remaining, De La Torre kept Ericsson at bay, with the lead group that also included Putera pulling away from the cars behind.

After Putera and Ericsson came to blows, it caused the No. 101 Lamborghini to be damaged to such an extent that it was unable to complete the inlap under its own power, having to be recovered to the pits on a truck.

In the Pro-Am category,  Shota Abkhazava and Egor Orudzhev were declared the class winners after an initial ten-second penalty was reversed.

A significant number of post race-penalties shook up the class order after the No. 3 ASR Lamborghini driven by Andrzej Lewandowski and Frederik Schandorff had won on the road.

However, they were demoted to fifth in class after receiving four separate time penalties.

This included a one-second penalty for a pitstop that was shorter than the minimum stop time, two five-second penalties for causing a collision and track limits abuses and an additional ten seconds for cutting the first corner.

The No. 12 Art-Line Lamborghini of Abkhazava and Orudzhev initially also received a similar penalty for cutting the first corner, which had resulted in Todd Kingsford and Chris van der Drift getting named as class winners.

However, the penalty for Abkhazava and Orudzhev was later rescinded, promoting them to the class victory ahead of the No. 298 machine of Kingsford and van der Drift.

RESULTS: Pro/Pro-Am Race 1