Putera, Levet Sweep Super Trofeo Barcelona Weekend
Photo: Lamborghini
Two victories at Barcelona alongside VSR team-mate Paul Levet have drawn Adam Putera into the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe championship fight heading to the season finale at Misano in November.
Capitalising on two difficult races for pre-event Pro class points leaders Enzo Geraci and Josef Knopp (Oregon Team), Franco-Malaysian pair Levet and Putera celebrated a perfect weekend that puts Putera just three points behind Geraci and Knopp, having won one race more.
Levet, who missed the Nürburgring round where Putera was joined by Riccardo Ianniello, fended off a charging Georgi Dimitrov (CMR) in race two after Putera had held firm against Benedetto Strignano (Rexal Villorba Corse) in race one.
Geraci had pole for the opening race but, perhaps distracted by Levet in his mirrors, ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped back to fourth. This boosted Strignano to the lead from Levet, but their battle was immediately disrupted by a safety car caused by Christian Bortolato spinning into the Turn 5 gravel.
Strignano held his lead following the resumption, as Geraci’s efforts to recover third ended in Patrik Fraboni (Target Racing) being dumped into the Turn 12 gravel. This resulted in another safety car intervention following the pitstops, which saw Putera emerge ahead of Strignano (with a three-second longer stop as a solo driver).
Despite Strignano’s best efforts, Putera made no mistake in the nine-minute sprint to the finish to secure a second win of the season, while Sebastian Balthasar and Amaury Bonduel (BDR Competition) recovered well from the last-named being edged into the run-off by Geraci at the first corner in third.
Knopp crossed the line fourth on the road, but a 10-second penalty issued for Geraci’s contact with Fraboni demoted them to seventh overall, with Elias de la Torre and Ethan Brown (Leipert Motorsport) advancing from 25th to fourth.
A penultimate lap pass from Bronislav Formanek on Stephan Guerin secured fifth overall and Pro-Am honours for himself and Stefan Rosina. Guerin ultimately tumbled off the class podium on a difficult final lap.
Oregon duo Massimo Ciglia and Pietro Perolini won the Am class, while Karim Ojjeh (Rexal Villorba Corse) claimed Lamborghini Cup spoils.
Strignano appeared determined to avenge his narrow defeat in race two and led the early stages from pole ahead of Am class leader Stephane Tribaudini (VSR), as behind Balthasar triggered a multi-car collision at Turn 1 that badly delayed Knopp.
As in race one, misfortune for Bortolato brought out the safety car, but not before oil from his expired engine had caught out Strignano. The erstwhile leader spun into the gravel at Turn 7 and had plummeted to 11th by the time he rejoined. The luckless Strignano would finish a disappointed ninth, while the recovering Knopp/Geraci could only muster 11th and eighth of the Pro entries.
After completing the mandatory pitstops under safety car conditions, Piergiacomo Randazzo relayed Tribaudini, but quickly fell back. However, his brief resistance against Fraboni allowed Levet into second, which shortly thereafter became a lead he would never lose.
Dimitrov, who had taken over from Guerin in eighth spot, made rapid progress after the restart to threaten the podium places. He pulled near-identical passes on de la Torre and Fraboni into Turn 5 before hassling Levet, but never got close enough to attempt a move for the win.
However, Pro-Am victory secured the class title for Dimitrov and Guerin with one event to spare.
Randazzo faded to 16th overall and lost the Am Cup victory to Stephane Lemeret, while Ojjeh completed a Lamborghini Cup clean sweep.
Source: Sports Car 365