Bonduel Recaptures Points Lead With Nürburgring Victory

Amaury Bonduel moved back to the championship lead in the Pro class of Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe by winning a rain-hit Race 1 at the Nürburgring, while Egor Orudzhev took his maiden series victory in Race 2.

The BDR Competition by GrupoProm driver converted pole position to take his fourth victory of the season by coming out on top in a late-race duel with title rival Largim Ali during a rain-hit contest on Saturday.

After two laps behind the safety car, the field was released with Bonduel retaining his lead at the start and into the mandatory pitstop period.

However, the Belgian rejoined the track in second place as he spent three extra seconds stationary in the pits as a solo driver and fell behind Target Racing’s Ali as a result.

Bonduel set off in pursuit of Ali’s No. 9 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 and set up a move into Turn 1 before running wide, although he then managed to complete the move into Turn 3.

Even though Ali pushed to regain the position, even running wide at Turn 14, he was unable to get back ahead of Bonduel as he and co-driver Oliver Soederstroem finished second.

Jesse Salmenautio and Giorgio Amati finished third aboard the No. 42 Iron Lynx Lamborghini, ahead of Hampus Ericsson and Orudzhev in fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Pro-Am class victory was taken by the Micanek Motorsport duo of Stefan Rosina and Bronislav Formanek, who beat Target Racing pairing Calle Bergman and Guido Luchetti.

Piergiacomo Randazzo and Stephane Tribaudini triumphed for Vincenzo Sospiri Racing in the Am-class, while the win in LB Cup went the way of Art-Line’s Shota Abkhazava.

The second race, held on Sunday, started with a mixed grid order as a drying track for the Am and LB Cup entries meant Frederik Schandorff’s Pro-Am entry was joined on the front row by Saturday Am-class winner Tribaudini.

Tribaudini then proceeded to take the lead from Schandorff at the start, after which the Dane came under pressure from Orudzhev for second place.

The former FIA World Endurance Championship LMP1 racer had made a lightning start to climb from eleventh place to pass Schandorff on the second lap.

Orudzhev subsequently caught Tribaudini and took the lead, only to lose it again to a charging Schandorff before the pitstop window.

However, as Schandorff handed over to his slower co-driver Alex Au, it allowed Orudzhev to recapture first place and go on to win by a margin of 6.519 seconds over Bonduel in second place.

Tribaudini and Randazzo completed the overall podium and got the Am-class win in the process, while Schandorff and Au took the Pro-Am victory.

In LB Cup, meanwhile, Abkhazava completed a weekend sweep aboard his No. 75 Art-Line Lamborghini.

Thanks to his Race 1 victory and second place during the Sunday contest, Bonduel retook the championship lead in Pro heading into the fifth and penultimate round of the championship on Oct. 7-8.

The European series concludes its season at the traditional end-of-season Lamborghini World Finals event at Jerez in November.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2