It was a winning debut for Leipert Motorsport in the GT Cup Europe, as Barrett Wolfe and Axel Bengtsson brought the Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo of the German squad to victory in Race 1 in Monza. The American-Swedish duo put on a perfect performance and beat the Porsches of Lodovico Laurini-Diego Stifter (BiRace Motorsport) and Ludovico Longoni-Simone Iaquinta (ZRS Motorsport). It is the first win of a Huracán ST in the series since 2021, when Andrzej Lewandowski won Race 2 at the Paul Ricard in a VSR car.
“We are very pleased with the result; the car was good, but we didn’t expect to win outright”, said the protagonists of the day. “The first stint was a matter of survival, with so many things happening around us, then the second part was about securing the result.”
It was indeed a race rich in incidents, which immediately cost one of the two top title contenders, as the FAEMS by Ebimotors Porsche of Pietro Delli Guanti-Tommaso Luvisi was eliminated on lap one. Standings leaders, the HWM Porsche of Jurriaan De Back and Paul Meijer, had better luck but couldn’t do better than fifth, still extending their lead by a few points, up to 12.
Davide Scannicchio and Fabio Babini (Tsunami RT) took at home their first win of the year in Pro-Am, while Hans Wijs and Rick Van Zijverden (HWM) signed their third success in Am, becoming solo leaders in the standings again.
Meijer was on pole, flanked by the surprising Lambo of Wolfe, and the Dutch kept the advantage, but drama struck at La Roggia, when Delli Guanti, in third position, was hit at the back by García, and his race ended there. The Spaniard would later be hit with a drive-through.
The safety car was out to allow rescuing the Porsche, and after the restart, Meijer kept an advantage of 1.8 seconds on Wolfe, followed by Iaquinta, Laurini, García and Wijs. In lap 9, though, the safety car was again on track, as the Porsche of Svepes stopped in a dangerous position, forcing a delay in the opening of the driver change window.
In lap 17, after all pit stops, Bengtsson was in the lead, with 6 seconds over Stifter and 10 on Longoni, followed by De Back, Rillaerts, and Babini. Things would not change in the top 3, while Babini took the lead in Pro-Am after a double penalty for the #6 Porsche for pit stop infringements. Pisani took third in the class. In Am, Van Zijverden crossed the line first ahead of Navarrete and Monteiro.
