A Weekend Sweep at Spa: Bonaldi Motorsport’s Strategic Masterclass
In a one-make series where every car rolls out of the garage with identical Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo hardware, the margins live in the people, not the machinery. Patrick Kujala and Adrian Amstutz proved that point emphatically at Spa-Francorchamps on July 30, 2016, sweeping both races at the fourth round of the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe for Bonaldi Motorsport. Race 1 delivered the Bergamo-based team its first overall win of the season. Race 2 delivered something more revealing: a victory built on strategy, nerve, and the willingness to attack when a five-second pit stop penalty should have made the weekend a write-off.
Bonaldi ran a split-stint approach that turned adversity into advantage. Amstutz handled the opening laps, keeping the car in contention through a safety car period that neutralized much of the early running. Kujala then took over after the pit stop and, despite carrying the time penalty for a pit stop irregularity, drove fast enough to overcome the deficit and cross the line first. When every car on the grid shares the same engine, the same aero kit, and the same Pirelli slicks, the difference comes down to team execution, driver skill, and the confidence to push when the arithmetic looks unfavorable. Bonaldi Motorsport found that difference twice in 24 hours.
The squad carries a track record of strong results in Lamborghini’s one-make series, including pole positions in previous seasons. Their approach, built around strategic race starts, precise pit work, and deep familiarity with the championship’s rhythms, showed its full effect at Spa, and it reshaped the championship picture with two rounds remaining.
Overcoming the Penalty: Five Seconds and the Art of Not Giving Up
Five seconds sounds trivial in the abstract. In a sprint race where the entire field runs the same car, it can be the difference between the podium and midfield anonymity. Kujala’s task after taking over from Amstutz was straightforward in concept and brutal in practice: build enough of a gap to absorb the time penalty and still finish ahead.
The safety car period in Race 2, triggered by a collision that eliminated three cars simultaneously, compressed the field and erased whatever buffer the leaders had built. When racing resumed, Kujala needed to pull away from Dennis Lind, who had qualified on pole with a lap time under 2 minutes 20 seconds (the only driver to achieve that benchmark in Q2), and the rest of a bunched pack. He managed exactly that, building enough margin through the final stint to absorb the penalty and still stand on the top step.
The result speaks to something that gets overlooked in one-make racing: when the cars are equal, the team that extracts the last fraction from tire management, fuel load, and driver confidence under pressure wins. Amstutz’s opening stint coincided almost entirely with the safety car period, which meant the team burned through the slower driver’s laps under neutralized conditions. Whether that was deliberate planning or fortunate timing, the effect was the same: Kujala inherited the car with maximum racing laps remaining and a clear strategic objective. That kind of outcome separates teams with deep series experience from those still learning the championship’s rhythms.
Championship Implications: PRO-AM and PRO Classes Diverge
Spa’s results did more than pad Bonaldi’s trophy cabinet. They reshaped the championship standings with two rounds remaining. Kujala and Amstutz extended their advantage in the PRO-AM class, pulling further ahead of Rik Breukers of GDL Racing, who entered the weekend just one point behind but could manage only fourth in his class during Race 2.
The PRO class tells a different story, and one that reinforces the same thesis about execution over raw speed. Dennis Lind of Raton Racing finished second overall in Race 2, which gave him first in the PRO category and his fifth class victory of the season. That run of wins widened his lead over Vito Postiglione of Imperiale Racing, who could only manage fourth overall in Race 2 after qualifying second. Postiglione’s inability to convert qualifying pace into race results is becoming a pattern, and with the Nurburgring and the season finale still ahead, Lind holds a meaningful advantage.
Harald Schlegelmilch continued his remarkably consistent season. After finishing second overall and first in the PRO class in Race 1, he launched from fifth on the grid in Race 2, gained two positions on the opening lap, and held third to the checkered flag. Consistency of that caliber rarely makes headlines, but it accumulates points at a rate that can decide championships.
In the AM class, Shota Abkhazava of Artline Team Georgia took his first win of 2016, finishing ahead of Nouri Shahin of Leipert Motorsport (who won Race 1) and Tim Muller of Attempto Racing. William Van Deyzen claimed the Lamborghini Cup for Van der Horst Motorsport, a team that celebrated a one-two finish the previous day.
What Spa Demands from the Huracan Super Trofeo
Spa-Francorchamps is a circuit that exposes weaknesses in both car and driver. The 7-kilometer layout combines high-speed compressions through Eau Rouge and Raidillon with technical sections at La Source and the Bus Stop chicane, all at an altitude that shifts weather conditions lap by lap. For the Huracan Super Trofeo, a rear-wheel-drive machine running on Pirelli slicks, the circuit rewards mechanical confidence and punishes hesitation.
The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe features four categories (PRO, PRO-AM, AM, and Lamborghini Cup), classified by driver experience. That structure means the grid contains a wide spread of talent levels, all sharing the same track at the same time. Spa’s blind crests and high-speed corners amplify the risk of multi-car incidents, exactly the kind that triggered the safety car in Race 2 when three cars were eliminated in a single collision.
For Bonaldi Motorsport, managing that chaos was part of the strategic equation. The team’s split-stint approach meant Amstutz absorbed the neutralized laps while Kujala inherited the car with clear air and a defined mission. On a circuit as unforgiving as Spa, where a moment of hesitation through Raidillon can cost tenths that never come back, that clarity of purpose mattered as much as outright pace. The Huracan Super Trofeo, a hardcore, race-ready iteration of the road car first unveiled in 2014, provides the level playing field. Everything that separates the winners happens around the car: preparation, strategy, and the nerve to attack.
Voices from the Paddock
“This weekend has been fantastic for us. Honestly, I haven’t done much today, because during my whole stint, there was the safety car on track. I’m satisfied for the championship, in which we managed to boost our advantage.”
Amstutz’s candor is refreshing. He readily acknowledged that the safety car period neutralized his contribution, which only underscores how much of the Race 2 result rested on Kujala’s shoulders during the second stint. In a sport where drivers routinely inflate their own role in a result, Amstutz’s honesty reveals a team dynamic built on trust rather than ego, the same trust that allowed Bonaldi to commit fully to a strategy that placed all the pressure on one driver’s final stint.
Lind, meanwhile, kept his focus squarely on the PRO class title chase. His stated hope for a similar result at the Nurburgring reflects the confidence of a driver sitting on five wins and a growing points cushion over Postiglione.
Abkhazava called Spa “one of the most beautiful racetracks” after collecting his first AM victory of the year, a sentiment that anyone who has watched cars crest Raidillon at full commitment would find difficult to dispute.
The Road to the Nurburgring and What Remains at Stake
The Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe continues at the Nurburgring on September 17-18, the fifth of six rounds. The German circuit presents a fundamentally different challenge from Spa: tighter, more technical, and less forgiving of aerodynamic advantage. For Kujala and Amstutz, the PRO-AM championship lead is theirs to lose, but Breukers and the Antonelli Motorsport pairing of Lorenzo Veglia and Andrea Fontana (who battled Nicolas Armindo and Henry Hassid of Konrad Motorsport to the final lap at Spa) remain within striking distance.
The PRO class battle between Lind and Postiglione looks increasingly one-directional, but the Nurburgring’s tight confines could suit Postiglione’s qualifying speed better than Spa did. Two rounds remain, and in a one-make series, a single bad result can erase a season’s worth of accumulated advantage.
That fragility is precisely what makes weekends like Spa so significant. The Super Trofeo series, which began with Gallardo-based machinery and now runs the Huracan platform, occupies a specific niche in Lamborghini’s motorsport portfolio. It sits below the full GT3 program in terms of professional competition but serves a vital role as both a proving ground for emerging talent and a competitive outlet for gentleman drivers willing to invest in serious racing. The long-standing partnership with Swiss watchmaker Blancpain reinforces the series’ positioning at the intersection of luxury and performance.
Squadra Corse, Lamborghini’s motorsport division, uses the series to develop operational expertise, refine the customer racing experience, and keep the Huracan platform visible in competition. But the one-make format’s real value shows on weekends like this one, when identical cars, strategic depth, and a five-second penalty combine to produce a result that comes down entirely to the people behind the steering wheel and on the pit wall. Bonaldi Motorsport’s double victory at Spa was not about having a faster car. It was about being a better team when it mattered most.
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