Lewandowski Wins Am/LB Cup Opener Despite Nervy Finish

Andrzej Lewandowski narrowly took victory in the opening Am/LB Cup contest of the Lamborghini World Finals at Monza in a contest that threatened to turn on its head with a late safety car.

The Auto Sport Racing Service driver was on course for a dominant win, even despite a one-second penalty for his pit stop being too short until a late safety car threatened to derail his victory bid.

But there was a lapped car between Lewandowski and the No. 46 Micanek Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 of newly-crowned European Am champion Jakub Knoll at the restart and Lewandowski was therefore able to pull 1.246 seconds ahead of his rivals in the final two laps to prevail.

Lewandowski had blasted into the lead at the start, with the on-board camera showing how much the Pole was enjoying himself as he quickly pulled three seconds clear of Renaud Kuppens aboard the No. 46 machine.

The leader knew he needed to build an advantage because he would serve a three-second longer pit stop as a solo driver and he was able to narrowly stay ahead of Knoll after the round of mandatory stops.

Lewandowski then built an 11-second lead as Knoll fell into the clutches of North American champion David Staab and Gabriele Holguin only for the safety car to be deployed with Francesco Galli stranded in the Lesmo 1 gravel.

But Lewandowski successfully negotiated a nervy conclusion to the race to cross the line with just enough of a margin.

He was aided by Staab passing Knoll on the inside of the Parabolica on the penultimate tour, but the Precision Performance Motorsports driver fell just short of denying Lewandowski the spoils.

However, there was further drama after the flag as Staab was handed a five-second penalty for cutting the first chicane on the opening lap — a sanction that sent him plummeting to fifth in the final classification.

Knoll and Kuppens therefore finished second after all, with Holguin seemingly completing the podium.

But Precision Performance Motorsports driver Holguin was later disqualified after his car failed post-race technical checks and that promoted the No. 96 Automobile Tricolore machine of Raffaele Giannoni to the podium.

While the Am lead did not change following the late safety car, it did change the LB Cup result.

Donovan Privitelio had controlled the first half of the race aboard the No. 8 Scuderia Villorba Corse Lamborghini from pole but when his father Luciano took over, the pair lost their commanding advantage when Luciano Privitelio had to cut the first chicane.

He was then unable to keep Topp Racing driver Rocky T Bolduc behind after the safety car with the latter making up for missing out on the North American LB Cup title by clinching the World Finals class win with a move at the first chicane.

Claude-Yves Gosselin also passed Privitelio on the last tour to seal second in class in the No. 4 Scuderia Villorba Corse entry as the Privitelios were third.

The deciding second race is due to take place at 11:05 a.m. CET (6:05 a.m. EST) on Sunday with Lewandowski again starting from pole.

RESULTS: Race 1