Gilardoni, Iaquinta Grab Points Lead With Nürburgring Double

Kevin Gilardoni and Simone Iaquinta scored a double Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe victory as the series resumed following its summer break at the Nürburgring, but the second race was ended early after a hefty crash for Umar Basalamah.

Pro-Am competitor Paul Levet qualified on pole for the opener and maintained the lead at the start while DL Racing driver Gilardoni quickly grabbed the Pro lead as class polesitter Jerzy Spinkiewicz dropped back.

But there was trouble for erstwhile points leader Patrick Fraboni in the Team Oregon Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 as a gravelly moment at Turn 8 on the opening lap dropped him to the tail of the field.

The Pro-Am cars continued to hold the advantage up to and beyond the mandatory pit stops with Iaquinta taking over from Gilardoni in fourth but quickly hunted down those ahead, eventually passing Miguel Cristovao in the pole-sitting VSR car with 13 minutes to go.

Spinkiewicz finished second while Rexal Villorba Corse’s Benedetto Strignano and Nicholas Pujatti completed the podium.

Further back, Fraboni and teammate Silas Loven Rytter were on a charge after their early dramas and eventually rose to fourth.

Levet and Cristovao, meanwhile, held on to fifth to score their first Pro-Am Cup victory of the season.

OP Motorsport’s Ole Petersen missed out on the AM victory after being penalized for a pit stop that was too short, which instead handed the spoils to Micanek Motorsport’s Renaud Kuppens and Jakub Knoll, while Claude-Yves Gosselin (Rexal Villorba Corse) was another first-time victor in the Lamborghini Cup.

ASR driver Marzio Moretti led the opening half of the second contest after being another Pro-Am contender to claim an outright pole but had Iaquinta right behind him at the time of the pit visits.

Sure enough, Gilardoni dispatched Moretti’s teammate Paolo Biglieri shortly after the stops and successfully negotiated a subsequent safety car restart to score a second win of the weekend as the race was ended early following Basalamah’s crash, from which he avoided serious injury.

Fraboni and Rytter finished second but were unable to challenge the DL machine and therefore lost the points lead as a result, while M­anz Thalin and Axel Bengtsson (Leipert Motorsport) completed the podium.

Moretti and Biglieri held on for Pro-Am victory, while the AM battle went right down to the closing stages.

Rexal Villorba Corse’s Karim Ojjeh was on a late charge and seemingly grabbed the class lead from Rodrigue Gillion in the final minutes.

But the red flag meant the result was put back by a lap and it was therefore CMR duo Gillion and Stephane Lemeret that claimed the victory.

The Lamborghini Cup fight was similarly dramatic as DC Motorsport’s Nina Ostergaard made a last-lap move on Gosselin, but was also denied by the red flag, enabling Gosselin to become another driver to complete a double triumph at the Nürburgring.

The penultimate round of the season is due to take place in Barcelona on Oct. 3-4.