Lamborghini | Europe: Tribaudini/Randazzo victorious in AM, Abkhazava in LC
Stéphane Tribaudini/Piergiacomo Randazzo won the second encounter in the final round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europa, which saw the conclusion of the 2024 season at Jerez for the AM and Cup categories.
The VSR duo drove a faultless race, taking a well-deserved win and adding to the AM title they had picked up previously, while a Shota Abkhazava on top form finished third overall to easily clinch the LC category title.
When the lights went out, everyone powered away to a clean start, with Lucas Valkre taking the lead from Huilin Han and breaking away, while Abkhazava settled down comfortably inside the Top 5 and in first position in the LC class, while his closest rivals remained behind.
On lap 8, Randazzo made his move, catching and overtaking Han to power into second, leaving Target Racing’s Chinese driver under attack from Abkhazava, Stéphane Guerin, Adrian Lewandowski and Seweryn Mazur shortly before the pit-lane opened for the carousel of pit stops.
The second part of the race continued like the first initially, with Diego Locanto taking over from Valkre as leader ahead of Tribaudini and Andrzej Lewandoski. The Frenchman took very little time to catch his DL Racing rival, who, clearly struggling with pace, began to lose time and positions in succession.
In addition to Tribaudini and Lewandowski, Abkhazava and Guerin had also overtaken Han in the meantime.
On lap 21, Paolo Biglieri began to close on Mazur, after having taken over from Petar Matic; he first set the fastest lap moving up three positions, before trying to attack the GT3 Poland man for P7; the latter shut the door and ASR’s Italo-Argentine driver found himself with one wheel on the grass, losing control and spinning.
Two laps later, Serge Doms got stuck at turn 1 and the Safety Car had to intervene to remove the DS Racing car, which remained in front of the group for a couple of laps, wiping out all the gaps.
At the restart, with just under 2 minutes remaining on the clock, Tribaudini started pushing again to give the AM triumph to VSR ahead of the ASR Super Trofeo driven by the two Lewandowskis.
Abkhazawa gritted his teeth to take the LC title for ART-Line, holding off the final assaults of Han and Guerin, who ultimately took home a Top 5 finish for Target Racing and Schumacher CLRT.
Lémeret/Gillion (CMR) finished sixth ahead of Mazur, Biglieri/Matic (ASR) had to settle for second place in LC with eighth place overall, ahead of category rival Holger Harmsen (GT3 Poland).
Nigel Bailly also finished in the Top10 in the ART-Line ST, beating the Rexal Villorba Corse drivers, namely Cyril Saleilles plus Donovan and Luciano Privitelio, who were outwitted in LC where they were aiming for the podium.
In the final stages, Locanto had a problem losing further positions and dropping down to 15th place, after also being passes by Alfredo Hernandez Ortega (BDR-Grupo Prom) and Oliver Freymuth (AKF).