K-PAX Lamborghini Loses Spa Pole Due to Technical Infraction

K-PAX Racing has been stripped of its TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa pole, demoted several grid positions and fined for a technical infraction found in scrutineering.

The No. 6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in which Andrea Caldarelli led Friday’s Superpole shootout was found to have engine parameters and air filters that were not in line with the ones used during SRO Motorsports Group’s initial Balance of Performance test.

SRO canceled all of Caldarelli’s lap times from the Superpole session, including his best 2:16.221 effort, and enforced a 10-place grid drop for today’s 4:45 p.m. race start.

The deletion of lap times put K-PAX 20th and last in Super Pole, while the additional 10-place drop has pushed the No. 6 Lamborghini down to 30th on the grid.

The ruling has handed pole position to the No. 88 Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon.

It will mark the third year in a row that the ASP squad, with Marciello as its qualifying driver, has started from the front of the grid at Spa.

American squad K-PAX, which is receiving support from Lamborghini Squadra Corse this weekend, was also fined €25,000 ($25,566 USD) for the infraction.

The SRO technical delegate’s reasoning in full: “The technical delegate reports that the engine parameters of car No. 6 (airbox pressure and calculated torque taken from the competitor’s own ECU channel) are not in line with the BoP test collected figures.

“It is also reported that the air filters used by car No. 6 are not in line with the ones used during the BoP test.

“Having heard from the competitor’s representative and representatives from Lamborghini, the stewards accept that the competitor is in compliance with the Lamborghini operating manual.

“However, having studied data analysis and photographic evidence, the stewards determine that this is a breach of the above regulation and accordingly they impose the above penalties.”

The penalty also promotes the No. 54 Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R to the front row of the grid, after Klaus Bachler qualified third in Superpole.

Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed is now set to start third, one place ahead of the new highest-starting Lamborghini from Emil Frey Racing’s No. 63 crew.

Caldarelli will share the No. 6 Lamborghini with Jordan Pepper and Marco Mapelli.