Leitch Moves into Points Lead With Spa Podium Sweep

Brendon Leitch edged into the lead of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe Pro championship standings with a pair of second-place finishes at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Leipert Motorsport driver finished behind Mattia Michelotto and Gilles Stadsbader in the opening 50-minute contest before replicating the result in Race 2, which ran entirely under the safety car and only handed out half points.

Michelotto and Stadsbader’s 12th position during the second race ensured that solo driver Leitch assumed the points lead by a half-point margin after two rounds.

Race 1 started with Michelotto leading away from pole for Vincenzo Sospiri Racing as Thomas Laurent battled past Frederik Schandorff for second.

Loris Spinelli then overtook both Laurent and Schandorff in his Pro-Am Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 run by VSR, while Michelotto increased his lead to six seconds.

Stadsbader then stepped into the No. 6 VSR Lamborghini as Laurent’s co-driver Adam Eteki started to chip away at the deficit and the Pro-Am VSR entry dropped back.

A safety car due to an off-track moment for Enrico Bettera reduced the gaps between the front-runners late in the race but Stadsbader retained the lead after the restart, despite Eteki taking a look on the run down to Eau Rouge.

Eteki’s hopes of a podium in his Boutsen VDS car were dashed by a 75-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, relegating it to 19th overall in the final classification.

Leitch, meanwhile, had a strong restart and squeezed past Eteki at Les Combes for second but was unable to reach Stadsbader in the little time that remained.

Doubt was cast over Stadsbader’s lead when he picked up a 1.2-second penalty for undercutting the minimum pit stop time, but the VSR driver did enough to seal the win.

The second race held on Saturday did not feature any racing laps due to wet weather and incidents behind the safety car.

After a delay of 30 minutes, proceedings started in a controlled manner. The safety car was then prolonged after a stoppage for Nigel Schoonderwoerd at Raidillon and a crash for Jason Keats at the same spot.

Series debutant Cedric Wauters won, effectively due to his pole position, as Leitch took second and the Pro-Am pairing of Edoardo Liberati and Martin Lybra were third.

Half points were awarded because the race did not reach 75 percent of the original race time, but it was still enough for Leitch to reach the top of the drivers’ leaderboard.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2