Balthasar, Moretti Take Early Points Lead at Paul Ricard

Sebastian Balthasar and Marzio Moretti took an early lead in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe Pro points standings with a second place and a win at the Paul Ricard season-opener.

The Oregon Team pairing steered their Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 to a pair of strong results, finishing behind Vincenzo Sospiri Racing’s Mattia Michelotto and Gilles Stadsbader in the opener before going one better in Sunday’s 50-minute contest.

The opening race saw Michelotto initially climb to fourth as the best-placed Pro runner behind three Pro-Am entries led by the pole-sitting Iron Lynx car of Yelmer Buurman.

Michelotto then moved ahead of Emanuele Zonzini for third around the halfway mark, before the front-runners pitted at the end of the mid-race driver change window.

With amateur drivers installed in the top two Pro-Am cars, Stadsbader closed in on the lead and hit the front with an overtake on Alex Au — whose co-driver Frederik Schandorff was second in the opening stint — down the inside at Turn 1.

Moretti also made late-race progress in his Pro-class Lamborghini, dispatching the Pro-Am cars ahead to finish five and a half seconds behind Stadsbader.

Oregon Team then improved on its podium result by taking victory in Race 2 ahead of the Iron Lynx pairing of Ugo de Wilde and Rodrigo Testa.

The early leader was reigning Pro champion Loris Spinelli, who switched to the Pro-Am class over the winter.

The VSR driver’s ability to establish a buffer at the head of the field was thwarted by a safety car period after Hugo Conde stopped at Bendor, which put his amateur co-driver Andrzej Lewandowski under pressure after the pit stops.

De Wilde ran second in the early stages with Balthasar in third, and their co-drivers Testa and Moretti continued in that order as they closed the gap to Lewandowski.

Moretti claimed second when Testa ran too deep into Turn 5 while eyeing up Lewandowski and soon overtook the VSR machine to put his Oregon Team car in front.

Moretti kept Testa at bay in the closing laps to win by 2.7 seconds, while solo driver Brendon Leitch finished third after the battling Oliver Soderstrom turned Lewandowski around at Virage du Pont and was delayed along with Amaury Bonduel.

That incident cost Spinelli and Lewandowski a weekend sweep of the Pro-Am honors after they took victory in Race 1, with the trophy for the second race instead going to the Target Racing duo of Schandorff and Au.

In Am, Pierre Feligioni and Renaud Kuppens won the first race before Gabriel Rindone prevailed on his own on Sunday.

Luciano and Donovan Pritivelio launched their LB Cup title defense by taking a pair of victories with their new team Iron Lynx.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2