Formal, Ericsson Take Pro World Title With Race 2 Victory

Danny Formal and Hampus Ericsson took the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Pro world title for Wayne Taylor Racing by winning the final race at the Misano World Finals.

After suffering a setback with late-race contact during Race 1 on Saturday, the No. 101 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 bounced back in decisive fashion as Formal beat the No. 3 ASR machine of Andrzej Lewandowski and Frederik Schandorff by a margin of 6.634 seconds.

Ericsson took the start for the deciding race in ninth overall and lost some ground early on before climbing up to ninth overall, while Pro-Am contenders dominated the opening stint due to their strong grid positions.

Schandorff led the No. 289 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini of Brendon Leitch and the No. 12 Art-Line machine of Egor Orudzhev into the pitstop window.

That window saw Ericsson pit at the earliest possible opportunity to hand over to Formal, while Schandorff and Leitch extended their stints at the head of the field before taking their stops.

With Formal at the wheel, the No. 101 Lamborghini began making rapid progress up the order, first capturing second overall by overtaking the No. 289 Leipert car now in the hands if Leitch’s co-driver Jiajun Song.

Formal then set his sights on the lead in the Pro class, which had been held by the No. 211 car of Gavin Huang.

The Costa Rican rapidly chipped away at Huang’s lead, completing the pass at Turn 11 with ten minutes remaining.

Out front, Lewandowski had held the overall lead in ASR’s Pro-Am entered No. 3 machine, but with a handful of minutes remaining, Formal made the winning move at Turn 8 and 9 to take the race lead.

With the victory, Ericsson and Formal were crowned Super Trofeo Pro world champions, making them the first North American entry to win the crown since Nelson Piquet Jr. did so for ANSA Motorsport in 2022.

WTR, meanwhile, took its first Pro world title since 2017, when Riccardo Agostini and Trent Hindman won in a car run by the Indiana-based squad entered under the Prestige Performance banner.

Lewandowski and Schandorff took the Pro-Am class victory in second overall, but thanks to their second-place finish and Race 1 win, the title went to the No. 12 Art-Line Lamborghini of Shota Abkhazava and Egor Orudzhev.

The Art-Line squad has now notably taken world championships at three consecutive World Finals events.

Its Pro-Am success follows on from a Pro title for Egor Orudzhev from last year, while Abkhazava took the LB Cup championship as a solo driver in 2023.

Benedetto Strignano completed the overall podium aboard the No. 15 Rexal Villorba Corse Lamborghini, followed by ANSA Motorsport’s Colin Queen and the second WTR entry piloted by Nick Persing.

Amaury Bonduel, the 2023 Pro world champion. finished sixth in the No. 57 BDR Competition Lamborghini he shared with Andrea Fontana.

Target Racing duo Patrik Fraboni and Giacomo Pedrini crossed the line in seventh, one spot ahead of the No. 129 TR3 Racing car of Elias De La Torre and Will Bamber.

De La Torre and Bamber came into Sunday’s decider as the points leaders in the Pro class in the wake of their Race 1 win, but were unable to convert that into championship success after a race stuck in the midfield.

Jacob Riegel picked up ninth for Leipert Motorsport, while the overall top ten was completed by the No. 211 BC Racing car of Huang and Jonathan Cecotto.

RESULTS: Pro/Pro-Am Race 2