Piquet Jr. Wins Race 1 After Spinelli Penalty

Nelson Piquet Jr. won the opening race of the weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America at Portimao after Loris Spinelli and Giano Taurino crossed the line first but were demoted after a track limits penalty.

Piquet Jr.’s No. 130 ANSA Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 was classified 2.8 seconds ahead of the No. 188 Taurino Racing by D Motorsports, despite Taurino taking the checkered flag ahead of the Brazilian.

The Italian-South African pairing were given a five-second penalty for repeated track limits infringements, which was handed out when Spinelli was at the wheel of the car.

Spinelli endured a dramatic opening stint, spinning after colliding with the pole-sitting No. 150 O’Gara Motorsport/Change Racing/USRT car of Patrick Kujala on the opening lap.

This allowed Piquet Jr. to slip through from second on the grid, but Spinelli then made his way back past Kujala before taking the lead away from Piquet at turn 14 with 43 minutes left on the clock.

Shortly before his mandatory stop, however, Spinelli was hit with a five-second penalty for track limits infringements.

Once Taurino took the car over, his lead margin was closed down by Piquet Jr. The Brazilian finished within five seconds of the leading car, which was enough to be declared the winner in the results.

The No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Danny Formal and Kyle Marcelli completed the podium, coming back from lap one contact with Luke Berkeley to finish third.

Late contact with the No. 150 car of Eduardo Piscopo saw Billy Johnson serve a drive-through penalty, which left Marcelli clear to claim third.

Sebastian Carazo and Bryan Ortiz took the class victory in Pro-Am, closing up the points gap to teammates John Castro Dubets and Bryan Lew ahead of this afternoon’s finale.

Carazo and Ortiz kept their noses clean in the No. 147 Precision Performance Motorsports car to finish fourth overall and first in class, finishing ahead of the Pro-class cars of Richard Antinucci and Piscopo.

Ashton Harrison and Tom Long finished second for Wayne Taylor Racing, with Damon Ockey and Patrick Liddy completing the podium.

Dubets and Lew, meanwhile, saw their championship advantage shrink through a dramatic race that saw Dubets make contact with the No. 153 Wayne Taylor Racing car of Aiden Yoder in the opening minutes.

Once Lew was installed in the car, he put his team further on the back foot with a spin with 20 minutes to go. He was able to continue and finished in fourth in class.

In the Am class, David Staab and Nikko Reger further extended their advantage by winning the class ahead of nearest rival Shehan Chandrasoma.

LB Cup honors went the way of the No. 189 NTE Sport car of Fred Roberts.

The deciding race in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America takes place later this afternoon at 4:50 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Race 1