European Entries Lead Pro Qualifying for World Finals

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe entries dominated qualifying for the Pro/Pro-Am races at the Italian manufacturer’s World Finals event as Amaury Bonduel and Frederik Schandorff shared the pole honors.

Bonduel steered his gold BDR Competition Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 to the fastest lap in the first of two back-to-back qualifying sessions at Vallelunga, which set the grid for Saturday’s 50-minute contest.

The Belgian solo driver posted a time of 1:32.133 to beat DL Racing’s Riccardo Ianniello by 0.442 seconds.

Recently-crowned European champion Brendon Leitch was third, ahead of Luca Segu in another DL Racing car and Stephane Tribaudini driving for CMR.

The highest-placed North American entry in Q1 was the ANSA Motorsports Lamborghini of Nico Jamin, who came through in ninth. Two-time North American champion Danny Formal qualified 12th overall for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.

Bonduel initially looked set to claim a sweep of the pole positions as he set the provisional pace in the second 20-minute session before pitting early.

Schandorff, driving a Pro-Am Target Racing car, sat two-tenths of a second off the pace but the Dane improved to within a tenth and had plenty of time left in the session.

With seven minutes to go, Schandorff and fellow Pro-Am competitor Loris Spinelli jumped ahead of Bonduel, with the former taking pole by 0.024 seconds.

Bonduel settled for third but still claimed the additional point for pole in the Pro class, finishing ahead of Egor Orudzhev, Largim Ali and Tribaudini’s co-driver Loris Cabirou.

The World Finals champions in each category will be determined by aggregate points, using the normal Super Trofeo scoring system.

The best of the North American drivers in Q2 was WTR Andretti’s Kyle Marcelli in 15th, while Super Trofeo Asia champion Chris van der Drift finished two positions above.

An Asian series car took the Pro-Am pole in Race 1 courtesy of Jonathan Cecotto, driving for Chinese outfit TRT Racing.

Saturday morning’s track action also included qualifying sessions for this weekend’s pair of races involving the Am and LB Cup classes.

Pole for the opening contest went to North American Am champion Glenn McGee, who steered the No. 169 Precision Performance Motorsport car to a time of 1:33.528.

McGee, who claimed pole for one of the Super Trofeo Europe Am/LB races earlier in the event, beat Egyptian solo racer Ibrahim Badawy by a tenth of a second.

Badawy also qualified second on the grid for Race 2 as he missed out on the overall pole to European Am champion Alban Varutti.

The LB Cup poles went to Bonaldi Motorsport’s Paolo Biglieri and US RaceTronics driver Blake McDonald, whose car has been loaned from Bonaldi this weekend.

The first Am/LB Cup race gets underway at 2:35 p.m. (8:35 a.m. ET) while the Pro/Pro-Am opener starts at 3:55 p.m. (9:55 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Pro/Pro Am Q1 / Pro/Pro-Am Q2 / Am/LB Cup Q1 / Am/LB Cup Q2