A Last-Lap Pass Seals Lamborghini’s One-Two at Enna Pergusa
Mattia Michelotto passed his own teammate with four corners remaining in a 120-minute endurance race. That single move turned a strong Lamborghini weekend into a perfect one, giving Vincenzo Sospiri Racing a one-two finish in the opening Endurance Cup round of the Italian GT Championship at Enna Pergusa. The #63 Huracán GT3, shared by Michelotto, Karol Basz, and Benjamin Hites, crossed the line ahead of the sister #19 car driven by Michele Beretta, Edoardo Liberati, and Yuki Nemoto.
The result carried a neat symmetry. Lamborghini says Enna Pergusa was the site of its first Endurance Cup victory last season, and the brand returned to lock out the top two positions on the same Sicilian circuit. More than a feel-good story, though, the weekend illustrated why the aging Huracán GT3 platform keeps producing results against newer machinery, and why that matters for the customer teams building their futures around Lamborghini’s racing ecosystem.
How the Race Unfolded: Strategy, Safety Cars, and a Honda Problem
Lamborghini’s dominance started well before the lights went out. In the second practice session, Huracán GT3 cars occupied the top four positions, with Imperiale Racing’s Daan Pijl and Raúl Guzman posting the quickest time at 1m36.009s. That pair ran as a two-driver crew after Mateo Llarena tested positive for COVID-19 before the weekend.
Qualifying confirmed VS Racing’s strength. The #19 Huracán of Liberati, Beretta, and Nemoto took pole on cumulative times across three segments, with the #63 lining up alongside on the front row. The #66 VS Racing entry of Andrea Cola and Baptiste Moulin qualified sixth.
Liberati led from the rolling start, but the opening corners reshuffled the order behind him. Basz dropped to third after losing a position to the Honda of Jacobo Giudetti at the first turn. An early safety car intervention compressed the field, and Basz used the restart to reclaim second from the Honda before beginning to reel in Liberati.
The pit window is where the #63 crew made its decisive play. Superior pace through the exchange cycle allowed Hites, who had taken over from Basz, to emerge in the lead. The #19, now with Beretta aboard, slotted into second. A second round of stops reversed the order again, and the Honda vaulted ahead of Michelotto at the final service. With barely a minute on the clock, the leading trio ran within a second of each other. A mistake from the Honda handed Michelotto second place, and momentum carried him past Nemoto for the lead just four corners from the checkered flag. Nemoto held on for second, completing the lockout.
The Lamborghini Huracan GT3, number 63, showcases its striking livery while navigating a turn on the race circuit.
The Huracán GT3’s Quiet Longevity
The platform delivering this result first appeared over a decade ago and evolved through multiple iterations, from GT3 to GT3 Evo to GT3 Evo2, without a fundamental architecture change. That kind of longevity in customer GT racing is unusual. Most manufacturers cycle through platforms more aggressively, yet the Huracán keeps producing results against newer homologations.
Its naturally aspirated V10 remains central to that staying power. In a GT3 landscape increasingly populated by turbocharged engines, the Huracán delivers a powerband that customer drivers consistently praise for its predictability and throttle response. Those qualities matter enormously in endurance racing, where three different people need to trust the car’s behavior over a stint. According to Car and Driver, the related Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 carries a base price of $360,000. The GT3 variant sits at a different price point and specification level, but both share enough DNA that operational knowledge transfers between programs. Teams that know the Huracán know it deeply, and that institutional familiarity pays dividends when pit strategy and driver coaching determine outcomes.
Ena Pergusa underscored the point. VS Racing did not win because of a single brilliant lap or a lucky safety car. The team won because two crews extracted consistent, race-long performance from a car they understand inside out, and because the platform rewarded clean driving with a result that newer, theoretically faster machinery could not match on the day.
VS Racing and the Customer Racing Pipeline
Vincenzo Sospiri Racing, led by former single-seater driver Vincenzo Sospiri and based in Forlì, operates as one of Lamborghini’s most prominent customer teams. The squad campaigns Huracán GT3 cars across the Italian GT Championship, Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. That multi-series commitment reflects how deeply embedded the team is within Lamborghini’s customer racing ecosystem, and why results like Enna Pergusa carry weight beyond a single trophy.
VSR’s GT World Challenge Europe effort targets the Silver category, drawing drivers from Lamborghini’s GT3 junior program. Young drivers develop within a structured Lamborghini environment, race proven hardware, and graduate into higher-profile championships. Michelotto, still early in his career, delivered the decisive overtake under maximum pressure in the closing seconds. That kind of composure validates the development pathway as much as it validates the car.
The one-two also reveals something about Lamborghini’s customer support structure that rarely gets discussed. Running two cars capable of fighting for outright victory in the same race requires consistent preparation, equal access to factory technical support, and a team culture that allows both crews to race hard without political interference. The #63 and #19 battled wheel-to-wheel on the final lap rather than holding station, which suggests VS Racing and Lamborghini Squadra Corse trust the process enough to let the result sort itself out on track.
Setting the Bar for the Temerario GT3
Every victory the Huracán GT3 delivers in its twilight competitive seasons raises the standard its successor must meet. The Temerario GT3, confirmed as the replacement for the Huracán GT3 Evo2, represents a significant philosophical shift. According to Car and Driver, the Temerario GT3 is the first race car entirely designed and developed by Lamborghini at Sant’Agata Bolognese, a milestone that signals the company’s growing ambition to control its motorsport destiny in-house rather than relying on external constructors.
The transition from a naturally aspirated V10 to a twin-turbocharged V8 will reshape how customer teams approach everything from driver coaching to fuel strategy. Turbo lag management, heat rejection, and boost mapping introduce variables that the current Huracán platform simply does not present. For teams like VS Racing that built their identity around the Huracán’s characteristics, adapting to a new powerband and different weight distribution will require substantial investment in testing and development.
If the Temerario GT3 can match the Huracán’s reliability record and driver-friendly behavior while adding the performance ceiling of forced induction, Lamborghini’s customer racing program enters its next chapter from a position of genuine strength. Lamborghini has not detailed the Temerario GT3’s delivery timeline to customer teams, so the Huracán’s current form remains directly relevant to anyone planning a racing budget for the near term. Results like Enna Pergusa buy time, but they also buy confidence.
Next on the Calendar
The Sprint Cup season resumes at Misano on the opening weekend of June, giving VS Racing and the broader Lamborghini customer roster a quick turnaround before the next competitive outing. The Endurance Cup’s second round follows at Mugello from July 14 to 17, a circuit that rewards mechanical grip and driver confidence through its fast, flowing corners.
For teams evaluating their options in Italian GT racing, the takeaway from Enna Pergusa is straightforward: the Huracán GT3 remains a frontrunning proposition with strong factory support, and VS Racing proved that the platform can still deliver outright victories against current competition. Whether the Huracán’s final competitive seasons produce a championship challenge or serve primarily as a bridge to the Temerario era, the car continues to do what it was designed to do: win races in the hands of well-prepared customer teams.
